By Shay Scanlan / The Hubbard School

On a warm, cloudy evening in Southeast Como, hands and shovels dig into the rich soil of two small community gardens. 

Located along 22nd avenue, Como Corner Community Garden and FairShare Farm offer a peaceful retreat in the middle of Minneapolis' city streets. 

Como Corner Community Garden started in 1992 with a single tree, said Susanne Maeder, a Como neighborhood resident since 1978. Thirty years later, the garden is full of pollinator-friendly plants, buzzing bees and Monarch butterflies that drift among flowers.

Over time, a half-dozen or so Como residents grew the garden into a native species hub. They let the garden flourish untended, now mostly planting several small trees that will grow into a small forest, Maeder said. 

Como Corner and FairShare are primarily community-funded, Maeder said . The land for Como Corner, around 1,000-square-feet, is rented from the railroad that runs behind it for a cheap sum.  

“I love working on it,” Maeder said. “I love being here. It's something that we have given back to the neighborhood.”

The community gardeners did several projects on the garden over the years: a fence to separate the garden from the railroad; a bench installment in the back of the garden under  a small shade tree; and a red-painted Little Free Library.

Samantha Fox moved into the neighborhood this year. She arrived at the Como Corner garden Tuesday evening to help pull weeds and meet more people who live in the neighborhood. 

“It’s been so nice to go around and see all these beautiful little spots,” Fox said. “It's very much a part of what makes this place home.”

A few blocks away is FairShare Farm. Nestled between houses, community members built FairShare 15 years ago on a plot of land rented from a neighbor. The vegetable garden's mission is to provide the neighborhood with access to organic vegetables, said Chloe Hagen, a lecturer at the University of Minnesota and Como resident who has been involved with the garden since 2020.  

The garden has a pizza oven, a shed for tools, wood plant beds, and a black cat named Shadow who lives nearby. A membership for the growing season, which runs from May to October, costs $25.

Members meet three times a week to care for the garden, sharing what they harvest and taking it home. 

In previous years, some produce was collected and distributed to older people in the community. Hagen said the garden organizers hope to reconnect with those people this year and organize a produce-sharing effort in August.

For a group of five people on Tuesday, tomatoes were the star. Members collected a variety of them and placed them into woven baskets. 

Gavin Holm and Sofie Papatola, roommates who live nearby, said they love to cook together with herbs from the garden. They collected basil, sorghum and arugula to make homemade pesto for dinner that evening. 

Papatola said she came to the garden with no experience and learned everything she knows there. 

“The people are one of the best parts,“ Papatola said. “I would take a bullet for Chloe. She's one of the most incredible and knowledgeable people.”

Tanner Munson, a student at the UofM, made pasta sauce last week with sungold tomatoes from the garden. He said he loves feeling more connected to the neighborhood through the space. 

“This is my first time living out of my parents house,” Munson said. “It’s been really beneficial for me to come here and have fun, talk to new people."

Hagen said she enjoys immortalizing the beauty of the plants and often creates art with materials like tomatoes from the garden and runs an independent small business for her art, Ghost Tabby Creations. 

Renee Rademacher, a recent UofM graduate and Como resident, said this is her first season at the garden and it brings peace to her day. 

“I feel a lot better about the food I'm eating,” Rademacher said. “I know who harvested it, my friends.”