Restoring Flint: Gardening with Love

People often move out of the city and take up new residences in either the suburbs or the country. It seems safer; there is more room for children to play, lots of open space to plant gardens and, of course, improved property values. Flint, Michigan has great, wonderful, open places within its city, but the problem is that it has been neglected. Open space in our cities is surprisingly easy to find and it can be every bit as beautiful and useful as open space in our suburbs. Flint, for example, is teeming with vacant lots and abandoned homes. Additionally, there are parkways, school yards, commercial strips and even parking lots that provide good, useful spaces to work with. Any one of these places could be improved with plants, landscaping and a little TLC, to make them more beautiful, safer and an all-round better place to raise children. Interested in helping to improve and beautify Flint, Michigan or, perhaps, even your own city? Read on for some helpful hints, timely suggestions and ways to accomplish this goal.

So you’ve decided to take the steps to reclaim your city from the ghetto and make it a better place, but it all seems so big and overwhelming. Where do you start? Before you even get started, you should contact your local Cooperative Extension Office to see if they have any listing of organizations that are willing to help with such a task, or if they have any information that they can provide to assist you. Surprisingly, in some areas, funding is available and local government encourages such actions.

The first step in undergoing any project like this is to organize and gather people of similar interests. While it’s noble to want to change things alone, it is more fun and brings a community together, to make it a joint project. Call a meeting for all those who are interested and explain to them what kind of work and commitment is involved. Ensure that everyone understands that this is everyone pulling together, not just a couple doing the work; beautifying the city not only takes everyone’s assistance to start, but also takes a joint effort to maintain.