We must cultivate our garden. . ."

“We must cultivate our garden,” wrote the French philosopher Voltaire in his satirical novel Candide, yet there was little satire meant in that closing sentiment. Small groups of people finding a literal common ground and tending it, while sharing their struggles to continue a meaningful life in the often bizarre wider world, is a need even more cogent today than in Voltaire’s pre-industrial age. Locally, that need is taking shape in the form of Grandin Gardens.

Begun four years ago with the purchase of 1.1 acres and four buildings near the post office on Grandin Road, Grandin Gardens is actually several entities rolled into a single enterprise, and still evolving. This is in keeping with the vision of Pete Johnson Jr., one of the owners. He sees a time, not so distant, when Grandin Gardens and its partners can call itself an eco-village, “an alternative to sprawl and mall.”

Eco-villages are, simply put, free-standing, self-sustaining communities. There is no recipe for them because each community and its resources are different. The single uniting factor for eco-villages is the belief in local abundance, that what is needed is within reach.

“I’m not a utopian,” says Johnson. “We’re an enterprise, and we want to develop local enterprises.”

Part of this plan to develop responsible local businesses has already resulted in the Local Roots Café, which uses produce from the gardens and area organic farms to craft tasty meals. The linkage of a restaurant to the gardens and those farms provides the critical functions of supply and demand for everyone involved. The restaurant, gardens and farms are given an independence from the sometimes turbulent food supply chain, growing food for both self-sustenance and commerce, with the restaurant creating jobs and demand for the farms.

The restaurant also serves another critical mission of the eco-village vision, that of public awareness. Behind every meal served at Local Roots is the belief that organic, whole foods make you better in numerous ways.

That belief has been evolved into a partnership with two Roanoke City Elementary Schools, Grandin Court and Fishburn, to provide environmental programs that center around growing their own whole foods.

Likewise, many of the businesses housed on the grounds are centered around, for lack of a better phrase, building a better you. Massage, holistic medicine, meditation and an emphasis on the arts are all surrounded by the currants, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and other produce items too numerous to mention.

Through all the growing seasons, the Gardens have been growing the connections that grow community. Johnson has great praise for area organizations such as the Grandin Village Business Association and Roanoke Neighborhood Services.

“Bob Clement (of Roanoke Neighborhood Services) does a great job with that.”

With all that has been achieved, there is still much to be accomplished, according to Johnson. A center for educating people about growing their own food in urban centers, a media center for responsible communications, a health center−these are just a few of the plans envisioned for the Gardens. As these move forward, says Johnson, the greater vision of self-sustaining eco-villages throughout Roanoke will progress as well.

“We want to mature this function,” he says. “We feel what we are doing is replicable in any setting, urban or rural.”

Written by Jeff Crooke. Originally published in The Roanoke Star-Sentinel, though this lead paragraph is mine and not the revised one printed.