On June 2, the temperature hit 95 degrees in Columbus, Ohio. Yet even intense heat, poison ivy, heaps of trash and rotting tires couldn’t stop Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb from transforming an abandoned lot in the Linden neighborhood into a food-yielding garden that doubles as a vibrant performing arts venue. It was all made possible by a tool that can’t be bought in stores: the positive attitudes of over 70 volunteers.

I think it’s time for people to start to look at the beauty of what we have in the Linden area as opposed to all the negative things that’s reported in the news
said Kwodwo Ababio ~ Owner of the adjacent New Harvest Café and “spiritual leader” behind starting community gardens in the Linden neighborhood.

Some of the healthy, affordable food grown in the new garden will be dispersed to needy residents through Ababio’s New Harvest Café — a life-saving boon in a community plagued by diabetes and obesity. Ababio hopes to create eight more community gardens throughout North Linden, transforming the neighborhood into an “Inner City Oasis.” Yet Ababio thinks the spiritual sustenance provided through arts and education will be just as important as the nutritional value supplied by the transformed space.

“I’m an artist, first of all,” said Ababio as he cut ham sandwiches for the dozens of volunteers hard at work next door. “People want to call me an activist. But the community is my canvas.”

Local residents will use the garden as a community gathering space and performing arts venue for plays, concerts, poetry readings and other special events. The garden will also serve as an environmental learning laboratory for the Linden-McKinley STEM Academy, where students can get hands-on experience learning about and caring for a wide range of plant life. In addition, Bethel A.M.E. Church, an organization that has been reaching out to help Linden families for years, plans to send volunteers from the church to help care for the garden and use the space as a learning sanctuary for its Sunday school program.

KWODWO Ababio is an artist. “The community is my canvas,” he says. He is also the owner of
the New Harvest Café on Cleveland Avenue in Columbus. The café has served Southern soul
food along with poetry, music, paintings, plays and group discussions to residents of the eco-
nomically strapped Linden area for five years. Shortly after opening the café, Ababio began
growing collard greens, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and other vegetables in the alley beside
his building to supply fresh produce for the restaurant. As the garden grew, he looked to
expand. He persuaded the city to have an abandoned building next to the café torn down,
so the land could be turned into a community garden. From the rubble, a beautiful garden
was planted last month. Some 70 volunteers, young and old, joined forces with sponsors
including Fiskars, Home Depot and the Franklin Park Conservatory. Raised beds were
installed. Sod was laid. Vegetables and flowers were planted. “It was rocks and debris,”
Ababio says. “You would not believe how much dirt and soil and manure we had to bring in
to make this ground fertile enough to grow plants again.”

Nutrition part of vision

Ababio has a vision of bringing agriculture to the inner city. “We live in a food desert,” he
says. “There are no grocery stores in this area. We have a beer and wine store on every
corner, but there are no fresh fruits or vegetables grownin this area.” As a result, young-
sters growing up in the neighborhood have no understanding of what goes into producing
food, Ababio adds. “No wonder the nutrition of these children is lacking,” he says. He sees urban agriculture as a way to bring jobs to the area as
well. “PPD,” he says. “Production, processing and distribution. We want to produce and prepare and package and distribute food here. We want to
put it on the market and create new jobs.” Rep. Carlton Weddington, D-Columbus, calls Ababio an urban agriculturalist. “Kwodwo is bringing
agriculture and food production to our inner-city neighborhoods as a way of economic renewal,” he says. “In my whole district,there are only four
true grocery stores.” Ababio has helped inspire four other gardens to be built in the area and is breaking ground on another one across the street
from his café. He is also searching for a partner to start an aquaculture business in an abandoned warehouse. “We serve a lot of tilapia fillets,” he
says. “It would be great to raise those fish right here in our neighborhood.” It’s the quiet beauty of the garden Ababio enjoys most. “This is art,” he
says. “For this neighborhood, it is also a brand new toy, sparkling and new and green and healing for the community.” The garden is named Ama
Vera, for Vera Breckenridge, a resident who was killed in a random shooting in 2006. “Ama is African for ‘born on Saturday,’ ” Ababio says. “But it
also means ‘a transcendent individual who provides strong leadership.’ ” It is a quality Ababio displays as he grows a garden to help others better
understand agriculture.

This garden is named for a young woman, “Ama Vera”, from the neighborhood who was recently killed in a drive-by shooting. The management at “New Harvest” is committed to use the garden, cafe, and center as means to keep young people off the street and direct their creative energies into activities that allow self-expression, build confidence and self-esteem, as well as, prompt a spirit of service to the neighborhood to build it up rather than tear it down. The memory of Ama Vera pushes the real goal to the forefront: to “STOP THE VIOLENCE” in Linden.

The garden has two sections: one is inside the fence where fresh produce for the restaurant is grown; the other is outside the fence adjoining the alley and is open for community use. This outside the fence section features many of the same varieties that supply the restaurant and people in the neighborhood can pick it at no charge for their home use.