University of Wisconsin - Extension

As a young girl, Marie Simpson loved tending the family garden. She maintained her own vegetable garden for many years, until recently when the heavier physical work became too difficult for her. Then, last summer, she got a special gift. A group of volunteers from the Madison Home Garden Project came to her home and built a raised-bed garden for her and planted a variety of vegetable seeds.

"I loved it. It was just like old times," Simpson says. "I spent a lot of time out there in my garden."

Rick Brooks, outreach program manager, Professional Development and Applied Studies, Division of Continuing Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains that a small grant from the Kellogg Foundation in 1997 got the project started. Brooks says he initiated the project because he sees gardens as one way of building a sense of community for people with developmental disabilities. Last year, the program was expanded to include senior citizens like Simpson.

"Our philosophy is to build a sense of community around food," Brooks says. "There's a natural sense of community created when people break bread together. This is particularly true for people who live in isolation. We need reasons to bring people together, and food has always been one of the best ones."

According to Brooks, individuals living in low-income households frequently have very poor diets. One goal of the Madison Home Garden Project is to teach the value of a high-grain, high-protein diet. The program emphasizes that gardens are a source of healthy, affordable vegetables, and the participants learn where the food they eat comes from. The program also helps foster a sense of sharing, knowledge of gardening, and awareness of personal abilities and limitations, adds project director Audrey Lesondak.

"This project is aimed at letting individuals with developmental disabilities experience the growing of their own flowers and vegetables. We teach them how to grow, prepare, serve and enjoy their own food," says Brooks.

Each spring, Brooks and other volunteers construct four-by-eight-foot raised-bed gardens for their gardeners. The Madison Home Garden Project also provides seeds and compost, much of which is donated by area businesses. Volunteers plant the seeds, and many come back to visit the gardeners.

Since the inception of the Madison Home Garden Project, volunteers have built approximately 35 garden beds that have served more than 150 people. According to Lesondak, in follow-up surveys, more than half the gardeners reported that they continued to use their garden after the first year and continued to request seeds, materials and assistance.

"We want to continue the program in Madison and actually spread it out to surrounding communities," Brooks says. "What we really need, more than anything right now, are volunteers to help us."

"I would recommend the project to others," Simpson says. "It's so heartwarming. It's really a lovely experience."

How to contribute to the Madison Home Garden Project:

- Donate two hours of time on a Saturday during the spring to help build a garden

- Organize a group of volunteers to put in one of the beds

- Serve as a liaison with a new gardener by answering questions and connecting him or her to appropriate resources

- Donate money, supplies or gardening tools

For more information, please contact Audrey Lesondak at 608-242-9202.