New Systems & Solutions

Innovative Library Farm sets example for urban community gardening

Personal empowerment and new solutions merge in this example of using existing infrastructure and organizations for community expansion and support.

A note from Aleiya ~ As we move through the transition away from national and global systems and markets run by large conglomerates, corporations and governments, a great deal of the re-building and empowerment will come from local community interactions and solutions. If you find you would like to explore and participate in the possibilities, it’s good to remember that you don’t have to start from scratch or do it alone. What is your expertise in? What would you be excited to help build in the community or learn more about? Once you identify a few personal areas of interest, look around your local area for existing infrastructure, small businesses, nonprofits or groups that might be doing or have space to try something new. This example of turning a library into a farm shows you the process for just one such adventure and the evolution of things to get it built. The new earth we are shifting to for humanity will be the merging of elements in the community to provide platforms for new formats and self-sustaining practices.

Building a farm at the library

With food costs at near-record prices, the idea of growing your own food has never been so attractive. But food production requires space, and space can be a precious commodity - even a rarity - for people who live in urban areas. Community gardens are more in demand than ever, especially in ‘food deserts’ where people find themselves living miles from grocery stores. The concept of community gardens is meant to make use of empty lots to grow low-cost produce or flowers for communities. These urban gardens can struggle to find funding, staff and easily accessible, supportable locations.

But what if your urban farm was to use existing infrastructure at an already well used central location? The Cicero Branch of the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) in Upstate New York has explored precisely this question. In 2011, they created the Library Farm - partly the brainchild of Meg Backus, then the adult programming director and public relations coordinator. According to Sue Buswell, the current Library Farm manager, Backus saw the vacant, library-owned land across the street as an agricultural experiment. In the beginning, about 40 members of the library went across the street with their own water, seeds, seedlings, and other growing provisions to investigate whether that land could produce. They discovered that it could.

"The ground was part of a farm that was on that land at some time in history, so it was still kind of fertile and we had great success," Buswell said. "The library started not only giving us the land to grow on, but the adult-section librarian started doing programs about gardening and such."

Realizations lead to taking the evolutionary steps to expansion

As gardening programs became more popular at the Library Farm, it became more obvious that material resources, like water, could no longer be supplied solely by members. An improvement project designed to provide water directly to the garden highlighted an unforeseen issue: the location of the original garden plot was not, in fact, on library property. Instead of allowing this to be a setback to the Library Farm's growth, the members of the farm project decided to pivot the space and simultaneously modernize it. After moving the farm about 50 feet away from its original location, Buswell explained that they then raised the planting beds and further expanded Library Farm programming. More programming, however, requires even more resources.

Growing a garden and a community

"We got ourselves associated with a couple of food pantries," Buswell said. "All the vegetables grown in our community area, we donate to the pantries that are in our three respective areas where the libraries are."

Donations of supplies allow the Cicero Branch of NOPL, as well as the two branches in Brewerton and North Syracuse to annually provide over 200 pounds of fresh produce for the residents in Cicero who deal with the challenge of food insecurity. This type of expanding community engagement is what draws NOPL members to the Library Farm. Lauren Rosenstein, a social worker and longtime NOPL member, explained that contributing some of her time to the pantry planting beds felt like an important community service.

"Helping water the pantry plots one day a week, I knew we were playing a role in the greater community," she explained.

She and other volunteers add some free produce to their own pantry, as well as building their personal gardening and food production knowledge that can be shared. At first it was simply the volunteers learning from each other. They made good use of the research they could do at the library. Rosenstein noted that those coming to the Library Farm entered with mixed levels of expertise. Some were total novices, while others came to the Farm having completed Cornell University's Master Gardener Program. Sharing tips among the members helped newer gardeners learn more rapidly. This became an ever-expanding exercise in empowerment in agriculture as well as community building for participants.

As a member of Syracuse Grows, the Library Farm also opens its events to all members of that organization's network. Sarah Brown, chairperson of the Syracuse Grows board of directors, explained that this is a "really great partnership" as it improves urban gardening throughout the Syracuse metropolitan area. Of the 27 member gardens in the Syracuse Grows' network, the Library Farm is one of two that operates through a public library. This makes its operations a bit unique, but also potentially more inviting to possible gardeners.

“The location is really beneficial for long-term sustainability of a garden. In terms of bringing people in, so many people use the library, and I think that really helped create visibility of the garden,” said Chairperson Sarah Brown of the Syracuse Grows Board of Directors.

This is one of the reasons that Brown thinks the Library Farm is here to stay. Its ability to incubate gardening expertise throughout Onondaga County makes it vital to the community. Additionally, its creation is an example of how one idea can become transformative if the community is behind it.

"This is as grassroots as you can get," Buswell said. "We saw the grass and we decided we could garden there."