Highland Youth Garden eyes expansion on Columbus’ Hilltop
The Highland Youth Garden has offered produce, education and more to Columbus’ Hilltop community for years, and now it is working to expand to offer even more.
The garden, a nonprofit operation on South Highland Avenue on the Hilltop, has put in a bid to purchase a privately owned home catty-corner from its approximately 1/2-acre lot that would be its first indoor space.
Acquiring the home at 106 S. Wheatland Ave. would allow for more activities for children, create space to store produce and provide office space so the growing staff can be in the neighborhood they serve, said the garden’s executive director, Shelly Casto, who declined to disclose the amount of the nonprofit’s bid.
“It would really just up our game,” she said.
How an indoor space will help Highland Youth Garden’s mission
The home, which was built in 1920 and was the original parsonage for Hilltop United Methodist Church, has been renovated by the current owner. The garden’s staff is working with the city to rezone it for commercial use, Casto said.
Fun history:Six things you might not know about Columbus’ Hilltop neighborhood
If all goes well, she said she hopes the garden can start using it in the spring.
“We have really a strong desire to expand what we’re doing, but we have been doing all this without a place to go to if it is super hot or if there are thunderstorms or other reasons why we need to be inside to take a break or take some shelter,” Casto said.
Sometimes, students on site will go into the nearby Hilltop United Methodist Church or go back to school, but the employees long for a space of their own.
With that, they could offer restrooms and classrooms, a cooling-off space for students and more. They also could begin to offer a summer camp and more regular after-school camps, Casto said.
Highland Youth Garden: Teaching Hilltop kids about food
Highland Youth Garden has been farming the site for 12 years and working with elementary students from area schools the entire time. The garden is exclusively focused on children from Hilltop schools, though its teen program is open to the broader West Side.
Students come over in class groups once a week or every other week to help plant, harvest and cook things from the garden. They learn about plants and animals, too, Casto said.
The garden grows radishes, lettuce, kale, collard greens, berries of all kinds, beets and many other things that grow well in Ohio, she said. It is expanding crops this season to those common in Latin American countries due to requests from neighbors, and those will include chayote, purslane and tomatillo.
Finding a home:Soccer program helps keep Hilltop kids away from violence, but organizers need indoor facility
The nonprofit started an after-school program for students about five years ago. It also employs teens in the summer and is striving to grow the garden’s programs.
Children also come in the winter, weather-permitting, to the garden’s high hoop house, a type of greenhouse that shelters plants, to tend to greens and perennials, Casto said.
‘An opportunity to try something new’:Teens learn gardening skills and more at Highland Youth Garden summer program
During the pandemic, the garden began offering free produce to the community from May to October after seeing the need while selling produce at Westgate Farmers Market, Casto said.
Helping Hilltop families plant gardens in their own backyards
The pandemic was also the start of its backyard garden program, through which volunteers have helped 15 families plant their own backyard gardens.
“We just really want to keep kids growing,” Casto said.
The two daughters of Sarah Blackburn and Bruce Fussnecker, of the Hilltop, have been involved in the garden from a young age, and they enhanced their own backyard garden with some plants from Highland Youth Garden.
Blackburn, 34, said the family always has enjoyed gardening and had a garden at home, but getting involved in Highland Youth Garden gave them access to a wider variety of plants and taught her daughters the importance of hard work.
The family got a mulberry bush through the organization, and Blackburn said being a part of the garden gives her daughters, Samantha, 6, and Lois, 10, something for which to look forward.
“The girls have always been involved in the springtime,” Blackburn said. “They like digging and planting the seeds. It’s helped the girls realize that hard work pays off.”
Aden Mohamed, a commissioner with the Greater Hilltop Area Commission, said he is happy the garden exists to teach children about plants and nature.
“I admire everything they’re doing over there,” he said. “There’s not a lot of programs like that here in this area, and I think taking care of those plants and learning to grow them and nurture them, and the kids learning about their environment, it’s very important.”
Casto said she hopes that the garden can be more than a place to grow and tend to plants on the Hilltop.
Share your story:The Storytellers Project is coming to Columbus
“We see a lot of needs in the community,” she said. “People come to us with needs for housing or social services, so, we see ourselves … as something larger, a community resource for people to come to.”
This story is part of the Dispatch’s Mobile Newsroom initiative. Visit our reporters at the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Hilltop branch library and read their work at dispatch.com/mobilenewsroom, where you also can sign up for The Mobile Newsroom newsletter.
Read More: Highland Youth Garden eyes expansion on Columbus’ Hilltop