An Urban Oasis Grows in Baltimore—With Justice and Nature In Mind
Through hustle and vision, Atiya Wells founded a green space from unused land that serves its community’s needs.
By Lisa Snowden-McCray
Contributor, Audubon magazine
July 21, 2021
Excerpt:
In putting together her vision, Wells was perhaps most concerned about Baltimore’s food deserts—places where residents found it harder to get access to fresh fruits and vegetables. She set about turning the land into a place where city residents could conveniently obtain fresh produce, joining a vibrant network of urban farms that residents, especially Black residents, have launched across the city. Today BLISS Meadow has a staff of two beyond Wells, plus plenty of volunteers from the community. They grow kale, collards, and onions.
The area is lush and green and is home to several chickens, one rabbit, three goats, and two ponds with plenty of lizards and frogs. The animals eat weeds, till the soil, and keep down the overgrowth, and on a stretch of meadowland, native wildflowers sprout in spring. Honeybees are on the way, and the plot attracts a variety of common Baltimore birds, including hummingbirds, cardinals, robins, goldfinches, and a Great Blue Heron around the ponds. The team held bird banding events at BLISS Meadow this past spring.
