What happens when you take a vacant lot—one that has been unused for 20 years—and transform it not only into a useful space, but a vibrant garden that provides fresh food for many people experiencing homelessness and low-income? Then what happens when you have to leave that newly refurbished space and start from ground zero in a lot just as vacant as the first with the added challenge of having contaminated soil? The aptly named Green Phoenix Farm—one of the gardens with Wasatch Community Gardens—knows exactly what happens because they have experienced this firsthand.
Starting in August of 2016, Green Phoenix Farm’s first location was located right by the Gateway. They transformed this lot, once riddled with weeds and trash, into a space that was able to produce good, healthy food. This process took years of hard work, requiring many hands. Now that their lease with the city has run out, they get the chance to start anew with a new lease in a new lot. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Amber Nichols, the director of Green Phoenix Farm. She describes this opportunity as daunting but an exciting way to reimagine the garden and fix past mistakes. Living up to their name, the people at Green Phoenix Farm have proved, once again, that unused spaces can be transformed into productive, environmentally friendly gardens that feed many mouths.
The new location, situated in a neighborhood just west of I-15, was previously the home of a community garden on one of the farther sides of the lot. However, due to heavy metal contaminants in the soil, it was shut down. Now, Green Phoenix Farm is attempting to try, once again, to transform this unwanted plot of land.
They are succeeding, too. Nichols describes how they have been working with the city to talk about natural soil remediation. Utilizing plants like sunflowers and zinnias, they are extracting the heavy metals out of the soil to restore it to a healthy state where food can be grown safely—a process called phytoremediation (there you go, a new fun fact to tell your family at Thanksgiving dinner). They are experimenting with using fungi, as well, in this endeavor. Thanks to these efforts in soil remediation, much more of the lot is able to be utilized. The area now boasts a large number of garden beds and a spot for a greenhouse in the near future…