volunteers

Community Building at DCP

News, Park Stories

This time of year is beautiful at Durham Central Park.  The grass is green, the sunlight is special and the gardens are full of vibrant color.  The landscaping hasn’t always been this beautiful  but now it is more  the norm because of several individuals, businesses and organizations who have ‘adopted’ specific areas in the park as well as the monthly volunteer days that happen throughout the year.

Each DCP area adoption is different and has its own story.  What we informally call the ‘Prudential Garden’ is a great example of how things happen around  the Park.  It started as a way to commemorate the loss of a friend and has become a showcase garden as well as an ongoing teambuilding project for a community minded business.

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Thanks to LDS for “Lovin the Park”

News

DCP wishes to acknowledge and thank The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for their volunteer efforts on Saturday, March 23, “The Great Day of Service”. This is the fifth year that the Durham LDS members have worked to improve the park. This year they cleared the heavy build up of vegetation under the bridge, and spruced up the SEEDS garden. Last year the LDS team constructed the steps that lead from the upper trail to the pavilion.

Park Story: SEEDS’ Garden of Eatin’

Park Stories

Come play and eat in the garden!

The gardens at Durham Central Park are beginning to burst with color, texture, smells and also some yummy items! At the southwest side of the park on Hunt Street is the Garden of Eatin’, an edible garden managed and maintained by SEEDS (South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Inc).  This is another creative relationship that DCP has with  a community partner to sustain the park and develop interesting gardens throughout.

The way that SEEDS got involved with DCP is a typical story of how things happen at the park.  Someone comes up with the germ of an idea; folks take it and mold it into something exciting; and then Durham Central Park just gets better and better!  It all began with the creation of the Durham Farmer’s Market in the early 2000’s. Brenda Brodie, one of the original founders of SEEDS had the idea for a farmer’s market.  They started small on Orange Street in downtown Durham  and eventually the DFM became its own entity.

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Park Story: The Immaculate Conception Church Table

News, Park Stories

This article was originally published by the Herald Sun. See it here.

In 2003, Durham Central Park was a five-acre area full of bramble bushes, weeds and trash.

On the east side of Foster Street, South Ellerbe Creek ran through the park but was so overgrown with kudzu and bushes you couldn’t even see it.

The area which is now the DCP Pavilion, home of the Durham Farmer’s Market and many other events throughout the year, was a wasteland that needed lots of love.  The only part of the park that had been developed was the Grace Garden in the northwest corner of the park.  The rest of the five acres was pretty much a mess.

That same year Dan Jewel, a new DCP board member and local landscape architect, knew that with very little money to spare in the DCP bank account, we needed some volunteer help with some serious clean-up duties.  And besides, the DCP’s vision of the park was that of a community park – “Durham’s own big back yard” – so the idea of getting the larger community involved to help clean it up and get things rolling was a great idea waiting to happen.

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