New Iowa City seed share plants gardens, resilience in Morningside-Glendale neighborhood

IOWA CITY — This spring, a few seed packets are sprouting something new in one Iowa City neighborhood: resilience.

A simple, informal seed swap, hosted by neighbors in the Morningside-Glendale neighborhood on April 13, is already bearing fruit.

As the country’s food systems, social systems and economy face new challenges of endurance this year, the inexpensive gardening basics could have an outsized impact not just by planting gardens, but by building community from the ground up for one corner of the Corridor.

How it started

Resilience has been on Jen Kardos’ mind a lot lately.

The mental health therapist and wellness director for outdoor-oriented nonprofit Backyard Abundance knows well the power of the great outdoors. She’s trained in horticultural therapy and uses it for her personal wellness at home, too.

“It’s my meditation in motion. I love having my hands in the soil,” she said. “It’s literally meditation. It keeps me calm, balanced and refreshed.”

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These days, she knows quite a few people who could use it. The uncertainty about the future her clients are feeling is quite palpable. Her neighbor, Fred Meyer, who founded Backyard Abundance in 2006, also senses the need.

Together, they had an idea: a simple share at Kardos’ home of herb, flower and vegetable seeds, purchased at the local Earl May. Building on something Kardos had done with friends before, they envisioned gardeners of all skill levels within walking distance.

They spread the word at a Backyard Abundance event earlier this month, collecting sign-ups from those interested through a simple online form. Before long, Kardos and Meyer were meeting neighbors they would’ve otherwise never known.

The impact

Being united around something simple, Kardos said, could mitigate the uncertainty, no matter what lies ahead.

“Sometimes, like right now, people feel all the change happening. You can feel paralyzed as to what I can do to help with times ahead,” Kardos said. “It felt like a small thing we could offer the community.

Using rich Iowa soil already in people’s backyards, the idea capitalizes on community in a way that seems to have gone by the wayside for some in recent years.

Iowa’s produce travels an average of 3,000 miles before it reaches plates here, Meyer said. With impending tariffs, economists expect the cost of fruits and vegetables to increase substantially. Even something as basic as tomatoes, the majority of which are imported from Mexico, will face a nearly 21 percent import duty.

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Even with tariffs aside, the system has vulnerabilities that can bring supply chains to a halt with one broken link between fields, processing, trucks and grocery stores.

“Our systems are fragile, and we’re reliant on them to thrive,” Meyer said. “The more we can do for ourselves, the more we don’t have to rely upon those larger systems we can’t control.”

Kardos has already noticed neighborhood action prompted by the cost of eggs. After prices skyrocketed in response to bird flu outbreaks, more neighbors started to adopt backyard chickens.

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Community planners and neighborhood planters expect the idea to reinforce the area socially as much as economically.

If neighbors have extra produce, sharing with neighbors sows long-lasting relationships. Meyer predicts zucchini and kale will, once again, be this year’s bumper crops — they always seem to grow in abundance around Iowa City gardens.

Other vegetables at the first seed share, which they hope to make an annual event, included beans, peas, squash, corn and cucumbers — things that are easy to grow without a green thumb.

Flowers, they found, were also popular in the neighborhood of 600 homes. In recent surveys, residents have expressed interest in environmental sustainability — transforming traditional suburban lawns into something useful for wildlife.

What resilience means to them

Beyond the economics of balancing a grocery budget, the seeds are a ready pretext for building something much bigger.

When crises strike, Meyer said Backyard Abundance gets busier.

“When we start feeling anxious, we usually go back to the land in some way,” he said. “That’s just an instinctual thing. We’re built to be outside.”

To him, neighborhood resilience means getting back to the earth — whether it’s an orchard or a humble container garden that grants the grower agency. As the seed share connects neighbors to share gardening tips, knowledge and camaraderie, the effort reduces siloing by rekindling what neighbors used to do.

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Maybe you don’t knock on the neighbor’s door to borrow a cup of sugar or check in on them anymore. But the extra vegetables in your garden have a firm expiration date.

“We have a reduced sense of helplessness even if we’re able to grow a small amount of food in our yard to share with a neighbor,” Kardos said. “Part of resilience is having the relationships that are strong and help us feel safe.”

From her therapy practice, she knows the personal benefits, too.

“Being outside is really good for our nervous system. It brings us into the present, we feel connected,” she explained. “Our fear system isn’t going off. We have a sense of agency.”

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Grassroots funding

The seed share is building a small, grassroots effort in the neighborhood thanks to help from Backyard Abundance and two other groups.

With a $200 microgrant from Resilient Sustainable Future Iowa City (RSFIC), it harnesses the power of local action. The nonprofit, started in 2021, offers grants of time, space and money up to $500 through its Neighbors to Neighborhood program.

Last year, it supported 100 neighborhood projects with the aim of constructing long-term, systemic resilience in fun and simple ways. This year, it hopes to support 100 more.

The small projects keep hearts and minds open to the ever changing needs of a community — a dynamic that binds neighborhoods together across the city.

Want to learn more?

Backyard Abundance is a nonprofit that helps Johnson County residents create and experience environmentally-beneficial landscapes that grow nourishing food, beautiful wildlife habitat and healthy people. For more information, visit backyardabundance.org.

Resilient Sustainable Future Iowa City, a nonprofit launched in 2021, is working to build long-term, sustainable resilience through storytelling, small neighborhood grants and more. To learn about their mission, visit rsfic.org.

The Morningside-Glendale Neighborhood Association was restarted in 2023 to build community for about 600 households through various events, gatherings and initiatives. See what they’re up to at sites.google.com/view/morningsideglendale/home.

“Sometimes, it can be so daunting to show up or organize such a large-scale event, but if we can exercise our muscle of solidarity with our neighbors in something small like a potluck, we’ll be able to flex that muscle when the community at large might need it most,” said Courtney Davidhizar, senior project manager for RSFIC.

And as the vegetables grow in the ground, there’s hunger for more of these efforts. As president Ashley Laux helps to rebuild the Morningside-Glendale Neighborhood Association, she hopes the seed swap sparks civic imagination and creativity about what a neighborhood can accomplish.

In a polarizing political climate, she said neighborhoods are a space of “can-be, joy and community.”

“I get a sense that during COVID, neighbors lost connection with neighbors,” she said. “I think the seed swap will capitalize on people’s hunger to build relationships with each other. Sharing seeds is a way of growing our community and our neighborhood.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.

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