Cultivating Community: The Rodney Reservoir Community Garden Design Efforts

• Sakhi Phang, Landscape Architecture, University of Delaware

• Anna Wik, Plants and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware

The community surrounding the Rodney Reservoir have been passionate advocates for the reservoir and what the future of the space will look like. The community came to together and created Green for the Greater Good which was built on the idea of the Rodney Reservoir becoming a permanent green space for the community at their best interest. This want for green space went against the original wants of the city, but over time a through vigorous effort they have been guaranteed that the reservoir will become a green space. Part of the efforts that lead to this guarantee occurred the summer of 2023 when we worked with the community to create conceptual designs for a park that met their wants and needs, those concepts were then given to a firm hired by the city who used those concepts in order to create their design which is currently in the works of being implemented. This summer we are working specifically on what the space for the community garden will encompass, as the gardeners were a big part of the advocation and have a prioritized connection to the sight. The goal for the project is to create a conceptual design for the Rodney Reservoir Community Gardens that is aspirational and depicts the dreams of current and future gardeners. These concepts will be given to the city and used as inspiration as the design of the site continues.