Vacant lot blossomed into garden
Cathy Free
But the woman living next door didn't see a neighborhood eyesore when she stepped outside every morning. All Gina Zivkovic-Hansen could see was potential.
Four years ago, Gina, who runs a landscape design business, approached the owners of the property, the Reagan Outdoor Sign Co., with a proposition: If they'd let her dig up the lot, she'd turn it into a neighborhood gathering place, where anybody would be welcome to gather tomatoes and herbs and pick a bouquet or two.
The company gave its blessing, and the idea blossomed from there. Gina slowly began replacing the weeds with leftover plants and cuttings from her clients' gardens. She built a creek bed with discarded mortar and rocks and carved out a few paths lined with butterfly bushes, baby oaks and ornamental grasses.
Today there is little to remind passers-by that the Urban Growth garden was once the homeliest lot in the neighborhood. And there's an added bonus: "We've all gotten to know each other better as neighbors," says Gina, 49, who is now preparing the 22-by-150-foot plot for spring planting. "There are 18 languages spoken in my neighborhood, but the garden has brought us together and given us a common interest. Everyone speaks the language of plants."
Now that spring has officially arrived, she'll be moving the tulips and irises outside in a few days, then she'll tuck in hundreds of herbs in any bare spots.
"That's one thing I like to teach people — that you can plant food anywhere in your yard, not just in the traditional square vegetable patch," says Gina, who scatters peppers, sweet peas and tomatoes throughout the garden. "Even if you live in a high-rise apartment with a tiny balcony, you can grow your own food. That's the beauty of gardening."
A former seasonal worker at Red Butte Garden, Gina decided to tackle the field next door after landscaping a children's garden at Jackson Elementary, a school with one of the highest poverty levels in Salt Lake City.
"I saw what a difference it made for these kids to be able to grow their own native plants, nurture them and take them home," she says. "I knew that I could accomplish the same thing on a larger scale on my own street."
Now on an average spring or summer day, refugees from Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan and other nations mingle with native Utahns to admire the Urban Growth garden. Gina holds parties in the sunny patch several times a year, encouraging her neighbors to take a few cuttings and start gardens of their own.
"This year, I'm planting pumpkins," she says, "so we can have a Halloween party for the kids in the fall. And when it turns cold again, we'll have a winter solstice party."
There's really no reason, she says, not to enjoy a quiet patch of urban beauty year-round.
Have a story? Let's hear it over lunch. E-mail your name, phone number and what you'd like to talk about to freelunch@desnews.com. You can also write me at the Deseret Morning News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84108. deseretnews.com
Recent comments
What a great community project. I hope other parts of the city would...
Jerry Milne - Taylorsville | March 20, 2008 at 12:51 p.m.
What a lovely idea! We need more enterprising people like Gina in...
Josie in WVC | March 20, 2008 at 10:12 a.m.
Gina, you have done a wonderful thing!! I can't wait to see this...
Grsnny T. | March 20, 2008 at 7:07 a.m.
