Examiner.com

Bonnie Anderson is a project manager, and in a good way.  She just loves projects, most especially garden ones.  Now that she has both her front and back yards managed, she's moved on to a large corner lot at Walter and Coal near downtown Albuquerque.  And the neighborhood is taking notice.

"People out walking their dogs love to stop and ask what we are doing," Anderson said.  Everyone is used to no bustle around the white building with the dark green trim and high-pitched, green-shingled roof.

Now there's plenty of bustle around this vintage gas station on the corner lot.

No longer there as a place to fill 'er up, the building is owned by The Albuquerque Conservation Association and is used for meetings of the Huning Highland Historic District, the formal name for Anderson's neighborhood association.  Someone, long ago, planted some prickly pear cactus in the spots where the gas pumps used to stand.  Now the prickly pears share the limelight with a variety of other growing things that offer more in the way of edibleness.

The vacant land adjacent to the defunct gas station is transforming to a community garden where some residents of Huning Highland neighborhood, just east and south of the downtown Rail Runner station, now enjoy attending to the sprouts of their very own veggies and herbs.  The "project" took root months ago as a topic of discussion at one of the neighborhood association meetings. 

"At first," said Anderson, "there was a general consensus that people in the neighborhood wouldn't be interested because they had yards where they could garden."  But, further research poked holes in that argument.  The association membership voted to move forward, allocating some money to get the project going before the growing season was gone.

As one of the main drivers of the project, Anderson enlisted the help of some folks on her block, the block over, and the block behind her.  There's Lee Spittler, the fellow who, along with David Carillo, made the water happen.  Tapping into the gas station's water line, they ran 10 lines for ten 35 foot long garden plots.  Each has a drip line and a faucet.  And, each plot costs gardeners $50 annually, to cover water costs. 

Before the water happened, Spittler first had to manipulate a Bobcat tractor in order to remove six inches off the top of the lot, including the asphalt that covered much of it.  With the help of a core group of neighbors, the old dirt and asphalt was relocated and the land was refreshed and replenished with topsoil from a local vendor, also the source of many yards of mulch.

While, there are no plans to add chickens or goats to the Huning Highland community garden there has been a push for a beehive.  Meantime, the garden has a freshly-planted melon patch and plans for some fruit trees.  The 10 plots are all spoken for.

Anderson says the garden is proving to be a focal point of the neighborhood and most importantly a gathering place.  "People stop by and want to visit about the garden.  It's proving to be a topic of mutual interest," according to her.  "Before when neighbors passed each other on the sidewalk there wasn't necessarily much to talk about.  Now we have our community garden and people are taking pride in that."

The Huning Highland community garden is one of the latest to emerge in Albuquerque.   In fact, community gardens are enjoying a great revival round the country, particularly in light of the local food movement.

Bonnie Anderson requests that if you walk or drive by the Huning Highland community garden and have the urge to contribute, the most appreciated donations other than money would be pottery for container gardening and benches. Call her at 505-242-8848.