Meet Cleveland Gardeners Growing More Than Just Plants

A garden is more than just an arrangement of flowers or produce; it’s a reflection of the person that cultivates it. Many gardeners across Cleveland take this adage beyond themselves and their backyard, reaping more than the small pasture that they sow.

At the annual GardenWalk Cleveland event, we were able to meet many of these gardeners aiming to make a greater, greener difference in their communities. Here are a few of our favorites.

Lisa Love’s Sanctuary

Love’s garden is located in Fairfax, a neighborhood that is currently undergoing a renaissance of sorts due to increased population and Cleveland Clinic expansion. Her garden serves as her personal outdoor meditation and yoga studio, with fruit trees, herbs and colorful flowers all around, providing some peace and quiet away from the bustle of the city.

“I started it 3 years ago. It wasn’t planned like that. I originally got a mentor who taught me how to plant herbs for herbal teas. I just started with the herbs and vegetables. Then, when I wanted to start planting fruit trees, she invited me to a workshop and started showing me how to plant trees. Once I planted the trees, I started building around those. Now, it’s a place where I can find peace. The way I designed it, it’s very intentional to imagine myself in another place, like an island. I can imagine the ocean, that's why I have the sand out there. I had several friends that dedicated their summers to help me out whenever I needed it, so I tell them this is their sanctuary, too. It’s just good to meditate, to touch the soil. After a stressful day, just to reset. My next goal is to find some land to have a community garden for people to come and get fresh produce.”

Mozeath Truths and the Green Hathaway Initiative

On Hathaway Avenue in Glenville, residents of all ages come together for the greater good of the community. While the area is known for being the birthplace of Superman and home to his creators, Truths and her neighbors are working to put Glenville on the map for its growth by going green.

“Before I moved here, my neighbors always had gardens. I have about seven neighbors that have been here since the Great Migration. The ancestors that came to Cleveland during the Great Migration were mostly farmers and came with their seeds. Pre- and even post-civil rights, grocery stores wouldn’t sell to my people, so they had to grow their own food. When I came along in 2021, I said we should start a streetwide initiative, and the official start was about 2023. Our goals were to take the side lots, grow food and sell produce. My yard is the Living Ancestors Art Garden. I painted half the fence and the separate paintings, and one of my neighbors did the other half of the fence. I paint the ancestors and grow certain plants that they had. For example, we plant cotton in my yard, even though it's not really a cotton weather zone. (The Green Hathaway Initiative is about) food insecurities. We have no grocery stores, and the stragglers that we do have, they have a very poor selection. The goal is for us to have food sovereignty over what we eat and how we eat. They used to call this area the Garden of Eden in the 80's, and we want to get back to that. We want to be seen and recognized as the first street in the area to turn green, and we want to go the whole nine yards.”

Erich Hooper’s Urban Farm

Hooper Farm, known locally as a tourist destination, is located in Tremont, where residents get the urban feel without being in the heart of Downtown. Hooper’s passion for learning drives his continued expansion and success at the farm, as he passes his knowledge on across generations.

“I came home from work one day, and my daughter Marley said, ‘Dad, I’m a vegetarian.’ I thought, I’ll give it a week. I bought a bunch of meat for the week, but she refused, so I started planting vegetables. Then, I started to go to farmers markets and festivals. Now, I focus on long-term sustainability. When I travel around the city, I look for stuff that could be made into art or utilized at the farm. We teach the kids how to plant the seeds, grow the plants and process them. The concept is to empower people to feed themselves in their own backyard. Once the kids have that knowledge, they can empower themselves and start feeding themselves. They know how to collaborate, as well as trade and barter. Being minorities in Cleveland, we are forced to go outside of our ethnic communities to succeed. There are many ladders and hurdles to dance through. With my new putt-putt course, I'm looking at the development of my area. There's nothing to do in Tremont for people over 50 but eat, drink and go to church. I put the putt-putt golf course in so people my age have something to do. This is a long term goal. I just do it a nickel and a dime at a time, and it takes a village.”

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