A garden takes root in Star Village

RAPID CITY — Star Village residents spent the weekend establishing the neighborhood’s first community garden behind The Nest, the duplex that serves as the hub for CVIPI, AmeriCorps, and the Love My Block project in Star Village, transforming a simple patch of ground into a place where vegetables, flowers, and community spirit could take root.

AmeriCorps worker Wendy Wiener and members of the Star Village Community Board had spent months preparing for the project, organizing planning meetings and gathering input from residents. Neighbors agreed early on that the hillside soil was tired and compacted, but workable if it was tilled and amended. When the work day arrived, volunteers from Fountain Springs Church brought the machinery and manpower to make that happen.

Using a backhoe and front loader, the volunteers tilled the 16 by 33-foot garden plot, breaking up the hardened ground and mixing in compost to enrich it for planting. They also landscaped the side of The Nest with landscape blocks, creating a clean border for what will eventually become a flower garden. Behind the duplex, where the vegetable beds will grow, they built two trellises, one metal, one wooden, sturdy frames ready for tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, or whatever vines the community chooses to plant. One of the trellises arches gracefully over the freshly turned soil, already giving the space a sense of structure and intention.

A simple fence of woven branches marks the garden’s edge, the kind of handmade boundary that feels both temporary and timeless. Nearby, a potting bench built from repurposed pallets held small pots, tools, and scraps of paper with notes and planting plans, a working surface that made the garden feel like a place where real tending would happen, not just a weekend project.

Youth from Star Village added their own imprint to the space. They created twelve star-shaped concrete pavers decorated with mosaics, each one a small piece of art that will soon form the garden’s walking path. They also started seventy-three seeds, tomatoes, zucchinis, and other vegetables, that will be planted on May 12 by children enrolled in the summer Junior Gardening Program. Two flower beds near the front door of The Nest were also prepared with compost and fresh landscaping, extending the sense of renewal beyond the main garden plot.

Children from the neighborhood, including several who arrived with their own small garden tools, planted starter flower plants with careful, earnest hands. Their laughter and concentration gave the project its first pulse of life, a reminder that gardens grow best when young people are part of the work.

By the end of the day, the space had been transformed. What began as an idea, a shared hope for something green and growing, became a tangible start to a community garden. Residents, volunteers, and children each brought what they could: labor, tools, knowledge, machinery, or simply the willingness to show up. The names can be added later, but the spirit of the day was unmistakable. This was not about credit. It was about preparing the soil, and the community, for what comes next.

The project was designed and implemented by the Star Village Community Board through a micro grant from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation’s Love Your Block program and Johns Hopkins University.

“A big shout goes out to our Star Village Resident Champions, who helped collect trash and a trailer full of yard waste and debris in an effort to beautify our community space, which will host a variety of fun summer activities starting in May,” said Jamie Kirsch, Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative program manager. “And a big thank you, as always, to our invested community partners from Fountain Springs Church and Y~ME Inc. for their efforts.”

Kirsch also thanked community businesses including Jolly Lane Green House and Builders Source for donations of compost and lumber for the community garden project and recognized partner agencies and local businesses for $300 of in-kind donations.

For more information about the community garden project and other Star Village summer activities, contact Kirsch at 605-872-0165.

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