Bedford Garden Park Growing Food, Flowers And Friendship

(BEDFORD) – The Bedford Garden Park sits on the northside of Bedford between 4th and 5th Streets on H Street and offers many uses for city residents.

Whether you want to walk around the quarter-mile pathway, take the kids to the playground, have a picnic, or grow a few vegetables you can do it all at this one location.

The garden spaces are available to rent each year by contacting the parks department.

April, Benjamin and Carl Lyons have used the park for the last three years.

The park is ADA friendly with playground equipment and one family uses the garden for their son to come down and do some gardening with them. With his mobility issues the park allows him to pick, plant, reach and grow seeds. “We like the park. We wish the plots where closer to the front for people with mobility issues.” Their son Benjamin is in a wheelchair. “This is our third year of using the park,” according to April Lyons.

The park has a quarter-mile pathway that residents can come down and walk safely, a shelter house to have a picnic, playground equipment that is ADA compliant, restrooms, birdhouses, beehives, fruit trees, and park benches just to come and sit.

Many have partnered with the City of Bedford on the project; from the Purdue Extension Agency, North Lawrence Career Center, Bedford Bee Keepers Association and Local Gardening Group, just to name a few.

A share tool program is also available where tools are shared and stored on the property. For a $15 fee you can have access to the shed and tools.

A local church put in the birdhouses and, with the new ordinance, they hope to add another set of beehives. The bees could be seen working the plants and flowers. Bees pollinate a third of the food supply and they were incorporated into the design of the park.

The fruit trees are managed by the Bedford Parks Department and residents can pick an apple off of the tree if so inclined.

Part of the funding for the park came from Indiana Housing and Community Development which provided a $25,000 matching grant for the project. “I am thankful for the City of Bedford in Utilizing this park that will draw a diverse set of people to the park,” said Camen Lethig. Lethig, who is with the IHCD, visited the park on Wednesday along with Bridget Anderson with Patron City.

Park hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and city residents are encouraged to come and see the what this park has to offer.