By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

DAYTON, Ohio — With the motto “Vacant to Vibrant” as their theme, members of Montgomery County’s Ohio State University extension service, Dayton city commissioners and city council plan to turn 6,000 deserted, unwanted city lots into blooming green space. They gave life to one of these lots in August.

“The city of Dayton has in excess of 15,000 vacant housing units and 6,000 vacant lots,” said city economist Diane Shannon. “We had to come up with a creative way to utilize the land and put it back into productive use. Our team looked at different options and we thought urban agriculture was one great option.”

After seeing similar successful efforts in Cleveland, Shannon contacted the OSU extension service in Montgomery County. That’s when extension staff members Ann Clutter and Suzanne Mills-Wasniak put words into action and, with the help of refugees from Sudan and Somalia and 1,000 young plants, turned a vacant lot on Banks Street in western Dayton into a lush garden.

Local businesses stepped up to till the soil, apply needed chemicals and donate tomato cages, seed, fertilizer and time. The refugees, working through USDA’s Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), provided the manpower.

Planting of the initial 120 square-foot garden began on July 16 and has since produced zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, okra, peppers, pumpkins, cabbage, Swiss chard, melons and sunflowers. All told, 500 pounds of edibles have emerged from the pilot plot.

Food from this garden is given to Wright-Dunbar Neighborhood Assoc. and a local mosque, to name just a couple of recipients. Talk about refurbishing more lots is ongoing. If this project is as successful as it seems, there are 5,999 more lots to refurbish.
“Instead of this being the end of the world, we should be looking at this as a new opportunity to remake the face of Dayton,” said John Gower, Dayton Planning and Community Development director.
“Right now we’re looking across the entire city at other potential locations.”