2013 Urban Orchard

Through this project, BRG hopes to encour­age neigh­bor­hoods to begin plant­i­ng click for plan view fruit trees and shrubs that pro­vide healthy snacks and food for the com­mu­ni­ty. These URBAN ORCHARDS are rel­a­tive­ly low-main­te­nance alter­na­tives to com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens. Instead of a cor­ner store Urban Gar­dens now has a cor­ner orchard.

This Neigh­bor­Woods project was gen­er­ous­ly fund­ed by Exxon­Mo­bil, and is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between BRG, The King’s Chil­dren Min­istry, and Urban Restora­tion Enhance­ment Corp (UREC). The Urban Gar­dens Sub­di­vi­sion inhab­its the old Hol­ly­wood Ele­men­tary site in N. Baton Rouge. Two house lots owned by the King’s Chil­dren Min­istry are kind­ly held in per­pe­tu­ity as com­mu­nal green spaces. BRG was brought in by the devel­op­er– UREC – to design and install pro­gram­ming for the vacant lots.

Dur­ing the plan­ning phase of these green spaces res­i­dents expressed a desire for a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den, how­ev­er, main­te­nance resources were lim­it­ed. BRG designed as space that would yield food crops and build com­mu­ni­ty ties in the same way as a shared gar­den, yet require sig­nif­i­cant­ly less upkeep.