As development presses into the West Grove, the Legacy Garden Initiative seeks to preserve the neighborhood’s identity.
A new community garden opened at The Barnyard on Wednesday, bringing fresh produce and a revitalized gathering space to the longtime West Grove community center.
Environmental nonprofit ECO Planet Earth unveiled the garden as part of its Legacy Gardens Initiative, a program that installs raised garden beds equipped with water-recycling technology to promote food access, sustainability and environmental education in underserved communities.
West Grove, Coconut Grove’s historic Black neighborhood, has experienced increasing redevelopment in recent years, with new construction and rising property values contributing to the displacement of some longtime residents.
In response, ECO Planet Earth partnered with the Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance to establish Legacy Gardens at the historic Black churches and institutions that have served West Grove residents for generations.
The Barnyard is the second Legacy Garden site to open in Coconut Grove.
The community center, which was founded by Coconut Grove Cares in 1983 and offers after-school programs and summer camp for neighborhood kids, joins Greater St. Paul AME Church, where the initiative’s first garden opened last year.
ECO Planet Earth plans to add nine more gardens at Black churches throughout the neighborhood.
As the West Grove continues to change, ECO Planet Earth program director Nalisa Saati said the gardens are meant to preserve the neighborhood’s identity by encouraging residents to gather at the institutions that have long anchored the community.
“It’s about leaving a legacy,” Saati said. “This community is getting pushed out a lot, and the thing that does keep them together, and here, is the churches and the after-school programs.”
While the unveiling celebrated a new resource for the community, the event also prompted reflection on West Grove’s changing landscape.
Sylvia Jordan, executive program director of Coconut Grove Cares, welcomed the garden as a resource for neighborhood children.
But as redevelopment pushes further into West Grove, she worries about the neighborhood’s future — and The Barnyard’s place in it. As more families leave the neighborhood, Jordan said enrollment at The Barnyard has declined significantly.
“In a way, here we are doing a legacy garden, doing a renewal of things, but at the same time, no one is going to be here,” she said. “Nobody is going to enjoy it.”
Jordan compared the garden effort to “rearranging chairs on the Titanic,” describing the project as both meaningful and bittersweet.
For now, she said she felt glad that the garden would offer children and families a place to gather and honor the West Grove residents who shaped The Barnyard and the neighborhood.
“For whatever little time, it’s a place for the community to enjoy, for the children to enjoy,” Jordan said. “So that’s the good thing, and we’ll remember the people that made it happen.”
Sinclair Holian is a Spotlight reporter and Report for America corps member covering gentrification and development in Coconut Grove. She joins us through our partnership with Report for America, a national organization that places journalists in local newsrooms across the United States.
