History

In 2000, the Morning Star Baptist Church contacted the CGC to get help building a children's garden on property they owned around the corner on Stanton. The children from Morning Star Daycare attended the SEEDS garden and grew vegetables and flowers in the raised beds. Programming in the garden ended in 2002.

In early spring of 2006, Healing Connections Associates, Inc, a home health agency located in Walnut Hills, approached the Civic Garden Center about gardening in the former SEEDS garden on Stanton Avenue. The garden had been unused and was overgrown with weeds and garbage. Although the staff of Healing Connections Associates had no experience with gardening in an urban setting, they were anxious to use the garden space to grow vegetables for their senior clients. The goal of the garden project was to promote healthy behaviors within the community by allowing seniors to exercise, eat healthily and socialize by raising and maintaining a vegetable garden. Healing Connections Associates staff received guidance and support from the Civic Garden Center and by midsummer, the garden was producing potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, peppers, squash, beans, tomatoes and herbs. While the main upkeep of the garden fell to a Healing Connections Associate volunteer, Dorothy Payne, the seniors walking group from the Alexandra Apts. on Wm Howard Taft became active participants who walked to the garden, helped with the weeding and harvesting and shared in the produce. Healing Connections Associates staff distributed produce to seniors who could not get to the garden. One of Healing Connections Associates home health aides cooked some of the produce to share with the elderly who could not cook. By late summer 2006, the garden was renamed the Julia Hanser Community Garden in honor of the late Julia Hanser, former CEO of Mercy Health Partners who was a sponsor of Healing Connections Associates and an avid proponent of health and wellness. Dorothy Payne, the volunteer who spent hundreds of hours maintaining the garden, was a semi-finalist in the Scotts Co. Urban Greenup Gardener of the Year 2006.

 The back lot behind the garden has been cleared by the Civic Garden Center staff and volunteers and plans are underway to add a picnic area and composter. The colorful flowers growing in the front beds of the garden have sparked interest in neighbors who inquire about gardening opportunities as well as expressions of gratitude for the beautification of the neighborhood.