Community Garden Planned For Oak Creek On Howell

Oak Creek WI

11 March, 2022

1:39 PM

Description

OAK CREEK, WI — A community garden for Oak Creek is being planned for land on 6700 Howell Avenue by St. John's Lutheran Church. Eric Fleischman, the chairman of the board of outreach for St. John's Lutheran Church, submitted the proposal, and the Oak Creek Plan Commission approved the plans during its meeting Tuesday. Outlined in the submitted documents is a plan to "reach local young and retired families." "This community garden will be a way in which we can serve our community directly by providing a free growing space for the people of Oak Creek," Fleischman wrote in a proposal letter to the plan commission. The garden would also serve the community by providing produce at the Drexel Town Farmers Market for a suggested donation. South Milwaukee's Human Concerns, an organization that seeks to help people during critical times, would receive 100 percent of those suggested donations, Fleischman's letter says. The space would serve as a garden, but also as a space for programmed activities, functions and meetings, and as a way to get people at church on days other than Sunday, the proposal letter reads. Plans say the free growing space would host 24 raised bed garden boxes. About 60-70 percent of the boxes would be for public use, while the rest would be reserved for members of St. Johns. A patio space, an area to trade produce, a compost bin, and a moveable fire pit are also part of the plans. The garden would operate between mid-April, the beginning of the growing season, until "hard frost." It would be open during daylight hours only. Refuse from the garden would remain on-site as much as possible by way of the planned compost bins, while remaining trash and non-compostables would be taken to the dump, proposal documents say.