Love, Tito and Green Spaces Alliance team up to revitalize 10 San Antonio community gardens

Community gardens are a single piece of land tended collectively by a group of volunteers within a certain area of a city. The gardens create a positive impact on many aspects of urban life, Grace Carlin, program manager for Green Spaces Alliance Urban Land & Water, tells MySA. 

Most gardens have fresh produce available to help provide a healthy option to the community. Carlin says they focused on supporting the gardens on the South and East sides where food deserts and food insecurity are prevalent. 

“All of these gardens provide a space for community members to come together and share in physical, emotional, and mental health benefits by growing plants, whether that’s fruits or vegetables,” Carlin says. “There’s just this wonderful sort of community cohesion aspect that these gardens provide that it’s really hard to find without them. Bringing people together and creating a safe and welcoming and fun space to learn and to grow together is is really one of the greatest things that all of these gardens provide.”

Inspired by Tito’s farm at the distillery, “Love, Tito’s” reconnects neighborhoods in need by growing community gardens and farms through the Block to Block program. In Bexar County, the Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas protects undeveloped land and water resources, cultivates urban green spaces, and educates the next general about the environment.

With the help of local volunteers, the groups were able to clean and spruce up the physical spaces at the gardens. The groups pulled weeds, trimmed trees, turned over the soil, planted new plants, rendered garden beds, and created new and interpretive signage, Carlin says. The teams worked in several areas, like the El Dorado Community Garden and the High Country Community Garden.

“It was really fulfilling to see the impact of all this because the benefit I saw was with the people and the community,” Carlin says. “We asked the gardens what they needed help with and what projects they wanted us to work on, and all were super confident in what needed to be done. It’s amazing that we were able to help them with that.”

If you want to volunteer your time, Carlin says community gardens are always in need of others to help. Even after their series is over, the work continues within the communities, she notes. For those wanting to help, Carlin says you can make a donation or volunteer at greensatx.org. 

“It can be once a month or every few months, anything helps,” Carlin says. “We encourage all of the support we can get. It is all valuable. It’s really what helps us deliver the kind of assistance the gardens need. It never stops, it just chances every once in a while, but the help is always needed.”