Community garden cultivates positive change in Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A garden in an east Columbus neighborhood is slowly beautifying the city, and it’s bringing about positive change.

What do you want to know

• A community garden on E. Livingston Ave. beautifies the city in a small way
• Civic Association President Kim Watkins got a group together to start working on the garden 5 years ago. It was overgrown and full of weeds at the time
• As the garden grew, the area blossomed. It even inspired many nearby businesses to clean up the street as well

Where the post office is on E. Livingston Ave., that neighborhood gets a little greener.

A community garden is in full bloom where, five years ago, nothing more than neglected trees and encroaching weeds outside the post office.

After a look, Civic Association President Kim Watkins took action.

“We looked outside and saw that the post office grounds had not been maintained,” Watkins said. “We’re already in the ‘Keep Columbus Beautiful’ campaign, so why not? Let’s start with the post office.”

Soon after, Watkins got a group of people together and the planting began. It continued to thrive for a few years until things almost changed course.

“I think it was 2019, they were talking about closing the post office,” Watkins said.

But instead of putting down their shovels, they worked harder.

Watkins said, “We have bigger plants and flowers to elevate the post office to be so much better.”

As the garden grew, the community began to take notice, and the strip on E. Livingston Avenue began to bloom.

“Once we started with the post office, we started noticing that other businesses took pride in their side of the street, cut the grass a little more frequently and didn’t let weeds grow, s ‘making sure litter around their buildings was picked up,’ Watkins said. .

Watkins hopes this will create a greener future.

“Please keep America beautiful,” Watkins said. “Keep your neighborhood beautiful. Keep your street beautiful. And keep your house beautiful. Plant a flower in the midst of all this chaos. Love will grow.”