#community-gardening

#community-gardening

It's a sweltering Thursday afternoon at The Gardens at Lake Merritt, where longtime dahlia growers Chris Dix and Curtis Maxwell are tending to the colorful perennials adjacent to the Lakeside Park Garden Center. Dix and Maxwell are members of the San Leandro Dahlia Society who are currently preparing for the upcoming competition show at the center on Saturday, Aug. 30 and Sunday, Aug. 31.

Urban agricultural spaces—neighborhood gardens—can reduce local temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and trees can lower the 'real feel' temperature by up to 30 degrees.

This two-acre secret garden, once a derelict nursery, has transformed into the UK's first center for food, ecology, and creativity, fostering community engagement.

"They're mending the soil one week, and then the next week they're going to start to see these little seedlings pop through the soil, because they're healthy and they're happy and they have sunshine, and they've watered them."