Rooftop garden receives grant to grow

The interior walls at the Middle Way House in Bloomington serve as a refuge for women and their children struggling against domestic violence. The roof of the three-story brick building, however, is used a little differently — to grow vegetables.

So far, the operation has remained low-key and operated through a small grant from the Bloomington Garden Club, providing food for the women and children living in the shelter. But beginning next year, the size of the garden is expected to grow. The project recently received a $2,500 Sustainability Partnership Grant from the city of Bloomington and a $1,000 grant from the Bloomington Project School, the fourth and fifth grade students of which help water the rooftop garden each morning.

For the past two summers, lettuce, radish and spinach have lined the roof of the Middle Way House, planted in black plastic trays and four inches of soil. Alongside the plastic trays are rain barrels that collect water used to hydrate the plants.

Precipitation from Middle Way House’s heating and cooling infrastructure is also used.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else in town growing food on a roof,” said Garden Coordinator Lindsay Davies, a senior studying biology. “So it’s a great learning tool, first of all, for people to see that you can do it and it can be successful.”

Alongside Davies, seven other interns, all of whom are female, donate time to the garden pro bono. Six of these interns are current IU students, Davies said, and one is an IU graduate.

“They were always really excited when I would come in with a big bucket of lettuce,” Davies said. “They were always like ‘oh good, we can have salad tonight.’”

Middle Way House, a United Way agency, offers more than just shelter for the women and children adversely affected by domestic violence. They also offer crisis intervention for women subject to domestic violence and rape, as well as legal help and support services. Childcare services are also offered to working mothers taking refuge at the shelter. Middle Way House Executive Director Toby Strout said she started the project to help reduce the costs of fresh produce used by Middle Way House.

“It’s just a great organization,” Davies said. “They do awesome things in the community for women who are struggling. By growing food, it’s just one little way that I can help them, I mean, it’s not going to totally change their life, but it’s just having a little bit (of) extra vegetables in their day that makes them a little better off.”

With these increased funds, Davies said the size of the garden will increase, moving up from the small plastic trays to “kiddy pools.” With this increased vegetation, they hope to sell their vegetables at BloomingFoods and the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market. Strout said she also hoped the project would bring in additional revenue for the organization.

“The containers we had before were smaller, so we could only plant certain things, nothing with really deep roots,” Davies said. “But we just did what we could with what we had.”

Davies started volunteering for the rooftop garden project at the beginning of the semester.

“It’s just been a great opportunity to learn more about urban agriculture,” Davies said.

Although the growing season ended for the garden in mid-November once the lettuce started getting bitter, Davies is striving to raise awareness for the program and hopes to garner additional donations.

Following her final exams next week, Davies is graduating from IU. She will then move to New Jersey to work at an organic vegetable farm. Once she leaves, IU student Ricca Macklin will fill Davies’ role as garden supervisor.

Starting the growing season all over again, Davies said volunteers are coordinating a volunteer day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — Jan. 17, 2012 — where volunteers will be asked to help plant seedlings and paint the newly-acquired kiddy pools. Davies said volunteers will continue planting seedlings through February until they are transplanted into the kiddy pools after winter’s frost thaws, probably in March.

Although Davies said the variety depends on donations acquired, they plan to grow peas, lettuce, radishes and possibly a variety of berries.