In nearly every Cincinnati neighborhood, people are growing food. They’re harvesting long beans and waterleaf in Northgate, and planting tomatoes and a variety of greens in the West End.
The traditionally rural work of farming is being done in the city at more than 60 community gardens, which yield thousands of pounds of fresh food every year, says Kymisha Montgomery, urban agriculture coordinator for the Civic Garden Center.
As climate change creates longer, hotter growing seasons, local urban farmers are having conversations about how to adapt their growing.
“I'm noticing it, everyone is noticing it,” Montgomery said. “It's a great way to bring that up in a non-confrontational way when you talk about growing food, because we now have to accept that we have an opportunity to grow earlier and later.”
Montgomery leads trainings for community gardeners at the Civic Garden Center. She says she’s been recommending urban farmers take advantage of the longer growing season.
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“Towards the end of the summer, we start to talk about season extending, and how to continue to grow food in times where we traditionally, here in Cincinnati, would start to put our gardens to bed,” Montgomery said. “We're saying, ‘Hey, let's hold off on that. There is another opportunity to grow food.’ ”
The advantages of a longer growing season
Cool season crops grow best before hot summer temperatures arrive and after they subside. Montgomery recommends growing crops in the Brassica family, like lettuce, spinach and broccoli, through the cool season.
“By taking certain precautions to protect your crops, you can grow almost year-round outdoors here in Cincinnati,” Montgomery said.
Growing food during warm and cool seasons allows community gardeners to have several harvests each year.
Longer, hotter growing seasons may mean more opportunity to produce food, but they also bring increased pest activity. That can shrink the amount of food farmers are able to produce, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Climate Hubs.
Montgomery says she discourages community gardeners from using pesticides.
“That is another way that we can impact the environment, and impact the food, and have more control over what we eat,” Montgomery said.
She says doing more cool season growing is one way to reduce that pest pressure without chemicals.
The advantages of community gardens
While community gardeners are experiencing the warming effect of climate change, they are also helping Cincinnati adapt.
Community gardens provide cities with greenspace, which reduce the intensity of extreme heat, according to a 2022 study published in Landscape and Urban Planning.
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And, growing food close to home reduces production of climate-warming greenhouse gasses.
"The impact, as far as lowering or decreasing the amount of miles that your food has to travel, is very big," Montgomery said.
Find a community garden near you
The Civic Garden Center helps maintain more than 60 community gardens around Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Find one near you on the nonprofit's Community Gardens Map.