Coppell Community Garden teams up with Youth Village Resources of Dallas

Written by Phil Cerroni

On a recent visit to the Coppell Community Garden (CCG), Charles Plummer of the Youth Village Resources of Dallas was fascinated with the compost bins.

When he heard that the Coppell Community Gardens production doubled (up to 14,000 pounds annually) after they started focusing on composting and building the garden soil, he started taking pictures of the lay-out and set-up. Plummer has been charged with gardening and teaching horticultural classes with the youth at the Dallas Co. Youth Village in southeast Dallas. The produce raised is be used in their culinary instruction through Café Momentum.

Plummer was at the community gardens in Coppell with an invite from the CCG Board President, Diane Lowe, as they were trying to figure out how the CCG Board of Directors could team up with Youth Village Resources of Dallas gardens on a project. Throughout the rest of the garden tour, He kept coming back to the basics of composting and a plan was set for the Coppell Community Garden to help set up a composting system for the gardens.

On Nov. 3, the CCG Board teamed up with Plummer to build upon the existing large compost pile to break it down to a manageable system where the youth will be able to learn how to make compost by maintaining a compost bin system. The workday was successful in building a series of compost bins that will continuously turn out ‘brown gold’ to add nutrients and microbes to the garden soil. The CCG Board contributed nine CE Shepherd bins, dried molasses, and a weed-eater for the project and plans to continue to be active partners in the gardens with expertise, workdays, and resources.

Source: Coppell Community Garden