August 26, 2025
It started out as a weedy, neglected patch of ground near the Lane County Fairgrounds where quackgrass, an invasive species, had taken hold. Anya Dobrowolski, a long-time Eugene resident and landscape designer, walked by the site almost every day, and dreamed about starting a community garden. In 2018, she contacted Lane County, EWEB, and the City of Eugene, trying to find out who owned the land and if there would be a problem if someone were to take out the weeds, put in some plants, and show the little patch of ground (half of which was owned by the city, half by the county) some care and attention.
When the covid pandemic started, the dream had to be put on hold. Anya and some of the neighbors she met through a grassroots neighborhood organizing campaign discovered they liked working together and wanted to create a project they could do as a group. In 2023, Anya bumped into a friend who was completing their Master’s program in landscape architecture and talked with them about the nascent garden plan. Her friend offered to create a site plan, and the group of neighbors agreed to jump on their only project that was, in Anya’s words, “shovel ready.” And in 2023, with the site plan in hand, they built the beginnings of the Solidarity Garden.
First, they had to remove invasive quackgrass. A member of the group donated the use of an excavator to scrape the site down to the ground. Later outcroppings of the invasive weed would be removed by hand. The group built hugelkulturs (a type of natural raised bed), created paths, added mulch, compost and soil, and planted herbs, annuals, and perennials. They chose hardy food plants to feed neighbors and passers-by. The neighbors who lived in the house closest to the garden site were enthusiastic about the idea – a necessity – and in 2025, the City of Eugene asked the group to sign a collaborative agreement to manage the land – an “underutilized City spot.”
Anya says that the cost to get the garden going was somewhere around $500 to $1000 for tools, seeds, soil, gas money, and dumping fees at Lane Forest Products. Anya was able to put her gardening expertise to work as well as her personal connections in the community to get donations and supplies. For example, arborists in her social network dropped off wood chips to use as mulch, and neighbors donated plants and seeds. The group put in roughly ten hours a week to bring it all together, and with the garden up and going, they hold a weekly work party to maintain the garden in the growing season.
What was once an ignored patch of weeds is now a beautiful, thriving garden that offers food and community to anyone who wants to pick a tomato or get involved, thanks to a few people who saw the potential. And it wouldn’t be too hard to replicate in most neighborhoods. All it really takes is a few good friends willing to work together, some time, some commitment, and a small piece of underutilized public land that needs some love.
