Riversiders looking to make land where neighborhood garden resides official park
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Riversiders are looking to make the land where their neighborhood garden resides an official park.
By making it an official park, the land is protected, so it cannot be used or sold for a different purpose.
“If it becomes parkland, then it will have to go through the park board for any changes,” said Wichita Parks and Recreation director Troy Houtman.
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The Riverside Garden was created in 2016 at another location.
“We discovered that there was an empty lot on the other side of the neighborhood, and the land owner was gracious enough to let us put a garden there so that he didn’t have to mow it basically, which was sweet, so he paid the taxes and let us do what we wanted,” said Kris Rogers, the founding member of the Riverside Garden. “When that 5-year MOU was up, he was ready to sell the land, which was within his right, and so we started looking for another spot and looked everywhere, and it was the parks department that suggested we use parkland because there isn’t open private land anywhere.”
The Riverside Garden is now located at 802 Amidon St. after land that the city owns, which was supposed to be used for an entrance to Botanica, opened up.
The garden has approximately 34 raised beds that gardeners rent out to plant what they want. The front of the garden has a native pollinator bed, with flowers that are used for dyeing and pressing around the edge of it.
Many of the gardeners work together to donate their goods, which include herbs and vegetables. Donations are also given to the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit.
The Riverside Garden is working toward naming the new park. They have reached out to local museums and historians, as well as social media.
“The top choice is really still keeping it as Riverside Garden,” said Rogers. “I think the neighbors are a little concerned that we’ll lose what we are, which I don’t think is the case at all.”
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