Starting a Plot at Vel’s Purple Oasis Community Garden
Vel's Purple Oasis is a community-based urban farm situated on one acre of land where Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood meets University Circle. Gardening first began at the Oasis in April of 2008, but the vision for it was developed in the mind of Don Scott 25 years prior as he and his wife, Vel, were running a popular and legendary party center known as Vel's just a stone's throw away from what would become the Oasis. While the party center closed in 1997, the Scott family remained deeply invested in the surrounding community. They began looking for new ways to help the people in Fairfax and on the fringes of University Circle, many of whom have long struggled with economic and health issues, despite proximity to some of the nation's premiere health institutions and one of the city’s most concentrated areas of investment in the Circle.
Don and Vel broke ground at the Oasis in early 2008 as a way to get members of the surrounding community involved with each other and to promote a healthy lifestyle through producing and eating high-quality produce. Vel is quick to point out that it couldn’t have been done without the help of three individuals who were there from the start: Eugenia Boyd, Don Smith, and Sylvia Clayton. Within three years the Oasis developed partnerships with the Green Triangle permaculture designers, John Hay High School Environmental Club, the Ronald McDonald House, the New Agrarian Center, and now the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. However, initially it was mostly just two or three people doing hard work, like toting water in buckets from across the street, that raised the eyebrows of the garden's neighbors on Frank Street. Vel says initially there was much skepticism at what they were doing, but she felt if they built a garden, the people to support and expand it would come. "Don't tell me what I can't do - those are words you'll have to eat later, once I do it," says Vel, before she describes how they were, "growing turnips, mustards, peppers, tomatoes - doing everything we're doing now, but on a smaller level."
As the garden grew, so did the interest of the larger community. In the summer of 2008 dozens of people from all walks of life came together at the Oasis to build the first strawbale-construction greenhouse in the city of Cleveland, which was raised largely over the course of a single weekend. Don was pleased to be there to see his vision of a greenhouse on an urban farm come to fruition decades after it first began. Sadly, he passed away in January of 2010, leading to numerous gatherings and obituaries where his kind spirit and positive attitude were recounted by the many people who got to know him over the years. Today Vel carries on Don's spirit through this and other projects and says, "We're all on that land because of the vision of one person, and that was my husband, Don Scott."
The PRCHN is very pleased to now be partnering with Vel and Green Triangle designer Hank Habermann to create a modest vegetable garden among many other agricultural projects started in the previous two summers at the Oasis.
Article Link: Case Daily Story on Our Plot at Vel's
We look forward to continuing the tradition of working with the surrounding community at the farm, by sharing our plot with students from John Hay High and collaborating with area residents like Jim Baker. Jim lives just across the street from the Oasis and came by during our garden's installation to lend a hand, shoot video for his online publication, and give us more perspective on the history of the Oasis and the surrounding community. We can see the Oasis from some of our windows at the BioEnterprise building just a couple hundred yards away, and we're looking forward to a lasting, mutually-beneficial relationship with Vel, Hank, and the University Circle/Fairfax communities involved in the Oasis.
