- The Benson Community Garden has served the neighborhood for 15 years as a space for growing food and connections
- Two new grants will fund a new rainwater collection system and a discovery center at the garden
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) – The Benson Community Garden has been a neighborhood fixture for 15 years, and now two new grants will fund upgrades to expand what the space can offer the community.
Kurt Goetzinger, the garden's founder and operator, said the grants will pay for a new rainwater collection system and a discovery center designed to introduce visitors to plants they may not know they can grow locally.
"It shows people things that they can grow in our climate that they never thought of," Goetzinger said.
The new rainwater collection system is expected to be installed later this month. The discovery center is planned to be set up this year, with plants beginning to grow in 2027.
For Goetzinger, the garden's significance goes back decades. He said he used to cut through the empty lot as a child on his way to school.
"I would actually cut through this empty lot, on my way to Lewis and Clark over there. And so, you know, this little piece of land has had significance in my life all the way back to 1980," Goetzinger said.
Goetzinger owns both the garden and the house next to it, where he also grows goji berries in his backyard.
Beyond the plants, Goetzinger said the garden has always been about building relationships in a time when neighbors rarely connect.
"We don't get out and get to know our neighbors, like, we did when I was kids. And so having a community garden like this gives neighbors an opportunity to get out and build relationships, to get to know each other," Goetzinger said.
That sense of connection resonates with people who use the space.
Justin Ballard, a Millard neighbor, said the garden turned strangers into friends.
"But it started off, just other gardeners, people that I didn't know that we ended up becoming friends," Ballard said.
Leslie McCuiston, a Benson neighbor, said the garden fills a need that has grown since the pandemic.
"I feel like since COVID, it's been a little harder to get folks out and meet and introduce people, and those sort of things, so this is right up my alley, because I love gardening," McCuiston said.
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