Barrels of Art in a Lakewood Garden

From a whimsical underwater design to a hard-edged urban spray paint motif, the newly installed rain barrels at Lakewood Community Service Center’s community garden are veritable public art.

Painted by 10 art students at Lakewood High School, the five colorful 55-gallon barrels are the latest addition to the community garden located at , a public-nonprofit partnership that is in its second year.

The barrels are impressive works of art that not only look good but will make it easier to water the 10 garden plots, said Trish Rooney, executive director of Lakewood Community Service Center (LCSC), a food distribution center in Lakewood serves more than 700 households a month from Lakewood, Rocky River and Westlake.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Rooney gushed as she made her way into the community garden created in 2010 and located just south of Becks Pool. “They so far exceeded any of my expectations.”

The art students, paired in twos, worked on the barrels during a double-period art class and afterschool. Steven Friedman, 17, estimated that they spent 60 to 70 hours creating their broad stroke visions.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Friedman said as he looked at all the barrels installed in the garden. “I like the whole idea of this garden.”

The seed for the 5,000-square-foot garden was planted in the summer of 2009 when LCSC purchased two of the garden plots from Lakewood Earth and Food Community (LEAF) and gave those to their clients to work.

“The clients had such a fantastic experience in the garden that we thought it might be a really good idea if we could give this opportunity to more of our clients,” said Rooney, who then approached Dru Siley, assistant director of planning and development for the city, to see if there was any unused city property with access to water where LCSC could create a community garden. “The city said we could use this land as long as we made it an added amenity to the park which meant that it looked great, it was well kept up and that it really contributed to the overall improvement of Madison Park.”

It is truly a “community” garden, Rooney said.

“It’s a great story,” she said. With a grant from Ohio State University Extension, support from the city of Lakewood Department of Public Works, Lakewood High School, St. Edward High School, Urban Organics, J. Barker Landscaping Company, Lowe's Home Improvement Center and many volunteers, the garden became a thriving space for LCSC clients and their families. 

For instance, the city was dismantling bleachers from an old softball field and that wood was made into a fence for the garden by West Shore Career and Technical District’s Construction Trades students.

“With a grant from Ohio State University Extension, we purchased the wood for the raised beds and we bought those from APOC (A Piece of Cleveland) so they are all floorboards from dismantled Cleveland homes,” she said. “Then we had an artist craft us the metal gates form repurposed metal that he had in his metalworking shop. So as much as possible everything at the garden is repurposed.”

And both years horticulture students from LHS’s science department grew seedlings for the tomato and pepper plants that were planted in the garden.

There are 10 families working an individual 4-foot by 20-foot plot in the garden. Each family – or gardener – had to sign a contract that they would abide by the rules and take care of their plots.  

“We have four new families this year and six returning and we have a waiting list,” Rooney said. “All our clients are renters so they are either in doubles or in apartments so the opportunity to play in the dirt is huge.”

The clients can keep any of the produce they grow, although many gardeners chose to donate produce to LCSC and to friends and family members.

 “None of it goes to waste,” said Rooney, adding that 90 percent of what LCSC has is shelf food in cans and boxes. “This is a nice opportunity to get fresh produce into the hands of our clients. It’s so healthy. It’s social. There is no downside to this.”