This weekend, neighbors in the Woolson Street community garden in Mattapan opened up their doors to the public – and ushered in what they hope to be a new era for a neighborhood with a painful past.
“After several murders on that street, a lot of people wanted a place that could be healing,” said garden coordinator Robyn Gibson. “So when you see Woolson Street, you don’t just think of violence, you think of something beautiful.”
One of the more high-profile recent losses on the street was the 2010 quadruple murder of three adults and a two year-old boy during a drug-related robbery. Boston resident Dwayne Moore was convicted of the killings in December 2012 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Gibson said that the process to create the garden was about four years in the making, starting with a process of community discussions facilitated by the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition and Mattapan United to see what neighbors wanted to do with the small plot of land.
7-year-old Gizelle McBride of Mattapan showcases vegetables from the Woolson St. garden.
As an avid volunteer with Mattapan Food and Fitness, Gibson became interested in the project and threw her hat in the ring when a lottery was held to determine which residents would be allotted a garden plot. After her name was one of the twelve picked, she and her cousin, Kim Blair, stepped up to be garden coordinators.
Blair echoed Gibson’s comments while emphasizing the significance of a healthy lifestyle.
“With the Woolson Street Community Garden, we hope to revitalize a sense of community within our neighborhood, [and] expose young people to the benefits of gardening by focusing on healthy eating and encouraging a positive lifestyle,” she said. “We also see this garden as an oasis, where calm and peace are paramount.”
Team Effort
The land plot was bought from the city by the Boston Natural Areas Network, which now is renting it to the gardeners.
Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition will help with the space’s programming moving forward. Next on the agenda: figuring out how to spend some grant money that the group has at its disposal.
Gibson said the Boston Architectural Coalition raised some money for the garden that can be deployed to make it even more community-friendly.
“In July, we’ll start having meetings to see what the community wants to do,” she said. “It’s a chance to fund some art, or something expressing peace and harmony.”
Although the garden had its official ribbon cutting in a ceremony with Mayor Martin Walsh and local elected officials last August, the ceremony came at the end of the growing season, so the community has not yet seen it in bloom. At Saturday’s opening, neighbors were welcomed back into the space to see the array of vegetables that the gardeners have planted.
The long list of produce signals a group that has been putting in a fair amount of work: collard greens, beets, spinach, herbs like rosemary and basil, eggplant, lettuce, kale and even a pear tree.
Gibson said that city hall had been helpful.
“The city’s been providing a lot of support – and once we do more programming, I’m sure they’ll offer more,” she said. “They’ve helped us in sharing how positive the garden is …[and] in showing all the positive things that are happening in Mattapan.”
And while the vegetables from this garden aren’t for sale, Gibson pointed to the work of partner organization Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, which will host a farmer’s market in Mattapan Square starting in July.
