IT'S ELEMENTARY

A GROUP EFFORT CREATES — AND SUSTAINS — THE ULTIMATE SCHOOL GARDEN

- SCOTT BEUERLEIN

Full disclosure: This article is about a garden the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden made as part of a community project in conjunction with the Cincinnati Reds and its partners. I’ll try to be objective. Even if I’m not, I think you’ll understand what horticulture did for a community, and what such efforts can do for horticulture.

SCOTT BEUERLEIN is Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and a regular contributor to Horticulture.

Since 2009, the Reds Community Fund, a nonprofit affiliate of the baseball organization, has worked with other prominent local businesses and nonprofits on a service project called Community Makeover. In this annual event, one community in Greater Cincinnati is provided help improving its ballfields, recreational centers, parks, schools and such. Led by the Fund’s Executive Director, Charley Frank, the planning takes place over the winter, and on a late-July day several hundred volunteers from the partner organizations swoop in and get it all done! Sometimes, they’re almost fi nished by lunchtime.

The Zoo signed on as a Community Makeover partner early, contributing facilities expertise, muscle and, increasingly, a horticultural component. In 2021, Avondale, the Zoo’s home neighborhood, was selected as the focus. The makeover addressed a number of sites across Avondale, but one location offered a unique opportunity to go big in terms of horticulture.