Revington neighborhood transforms tennis courts into victory garden

Looking on the bright side can be tricky these days, but residents of Revington on the River soak up the sun by working together to renovate their under-utilized tennis courts into a lush, lively victory garden. The tennis courts near the community pool had been unused for a few years so members of the Revington Homeowners Association and interested homeowners began to discuss a plan to “someday” convert the tennis courts into a community garden. Then after health and safety concerns related to Covid-19 required many people to stay close to home, “someday” came a lot sooner than expected.

As a relative newcomer to the neighborhood and a retired Texas transplant, Ed Stockhausen searched for a way to connect with his neighbors and to contribute to the community. So naturally, when the victory garden project came up, Ed jumped in with both feet.

“I went out and bought a bunch of boards, basically started building the first set of boxes. I’ve done a lot of landscaping on my property, so I had a good idea of what we needed. I brought in a bunch of rocks, a bunch of soil,” Ed said.

Ed laid out the initial plans for the first twelve boxes, with dimensions of 4ft long, 4ft wide by 20in high. Ed was quick to say that this was a joint neighborhood project with lots of hardworking and cheerful people chipping in. He simply served as the first to break ground and get things organized so that others could come and join in the fun. Due to a family emergency, Ed was out of town for six weeks towards the completion of the project. But the work continued as more and more neighbors marveled at the progress. One neighbor even rode in on big Bobcat machinery to speed things along.

“It’s been amazing. We’ve put in a fire pit and we have two tee-pees made out of bamboo out of somebody’s yard. The kids did that and planted beans around one of them and peas around the other,” said Karen Walkup, Revington resident.

Karen estimates that there are now 15 tended beds managed by individual neighborhood families, as well as designated community areas for shared use. The variety of plants is impressive, from fresh flowers to delectable tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, watermelon, pumpkin and more.

The green garden breathes life into an already vibrant community and gives us hope for the future as we see like-minded individuals work towards a common goal to make things better. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Revington Community Garden.