Hawkins

A Garden's Namesake
(submitted by a Hawkins P-Patch gardener)

The Hawkins family moved to the Central Area in January of 1959. Samuel Hawkins loved to garden. It wasn't long after settling into his new dwelling that he requested permission from the City to clean off the undeveloped land located behind his property line. At that time, there were several small trees and blackberry bushes covering the area. The permission was granted and Mr. Hawkins, with the help of his family members, labored daily at this endeavor.

Rototilling the land, Samuel soon developed the rich soil to start planting various vegetables in the garden he had envisioned. Rows of corn, string beans, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, and squash--just to name a few--were commonly seen sprouting up during the harvest. Along with this, Alma, his wife had started a beautiful flower garden growing adjacent the vegetable garden. Soon after, many of the neighbors cleared off the undeveloped land behind their homes and starting growing vegetables and flowers.

Samuel gave many of the vegetables to the neighboring grocery stores, for the yield of the garden was overflowing at times. Until his health starting failing him, Samuel could be seen working in his garden everyday, if nothing more than to water it. He loved sitting in the midst of nature in bloom until he passed away on July 2, 2001.

In the meantime, the P-Patch Program was looking to replace a garden site in the Central Area that was lost some years ago. When this piece of land became surplus in 2002, the P-Patch Program and AmeriCorps VISTA began working with the community to design and build a community garden. Through that process, folks learned about Mr. Hawkins. The garden is named after Mr. Hawkins and all the years of love the site received from him.