Fresh, healthy food and stress relief are among the benefits of vegetable gardening.

When the garden is in a public park, there's another: building community.

Santa Fe city park planners have designated four spaces for future community-organized garden projects. In addition to Frenchy's Field Park and the Railyard, they include a .2-acre parcel of undeveloped land at the foot of Maclovia Street and the Adam Gabriel Armijo Park off Cerro Gordo Road.

Community gardening isn't a new concept, but it's growing in popularity throughout the nation.

The Trust for Public land has a waiting list in Manhattan, N.Y., for rooftop garden boxes, which measure 2 meters by 6 meters. In Bloomfield, Ind., two city parks offer more than 100 individual garden plots, a number that has more than quadrupled in the 20 years the city has offered the program.

Indiana program specialist H. Michael Simmons said he sees two reasons for the community's interest. "One is it is a recreational activity. ... It's an opportunity to get out, and it's a social occasion when people are able to garden together and share experiences and seeds. And two, people are becoming more concerned about their food security," he said.

In Santa Fe, residents of the Gallegos Lane public housing project produced food a few years ago on a plot where Maclovia and Declovina streets meet. That effort petered out, but now Declovina Street resident Liza Suzanne and other neighbors want to coordinate a new community garden at the site. The city is planning to build raised garden boxes there.

Although a sidewalk and playground reduced the amount of available space, Suzanne said she's ready to get her hands dirty. She wonders, though, how many people will get involved, given plans for a similar garden at Frenchy's Field Park, which is within walking distance.

Suzanne, a recreation director at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, said lots of people seem to be talking about starting community gardens, but no one is getting organized enough to put them in. "I would be psyched to get a garden going with whoever of the neighbors want to do it. I think it would really promote community," she said.

In the city's newest park in the Railyard, part of the construction under way includes a small circular area for gardens. The Trust for Public Land and the city will be seeking proposals for using the space. The garden will be watered from the Acequia Madre with rights already leased for the effort, said TPL project manager Brian Drypolcher.

The park has another food-producing feature. About 30 fruit trees were planted this spring along Cerrillos Road downtown. When they are mature enough to produce, the apples and apricots will be free for the taking.

"Right now, the plan is that anyone who wants the fruit gets the fruit, including the birds," Drypolcher said. The trees might inspire activities such as an apricot pie bake-off or school groups harvesting apples to make cider on-site, he added.

At Adam Gabriel Armijo Park in the eastern foothills, members of the local ditch association have rebuilt the acequia and have been watering the lower open space of the park for four years. Although the city doesn't currently have plans to install beds there, the parks director said the area will remain open for a garden.

Area resident Barry Rudolph said he hopes the city will figure out a way to make sure water gets to the park in perpetuity and will purchase fruit trees. Then he or other neighbors could work on a food plot as well, he said.

"We have a crucial need for growing our own food," said Rudolph. "The idea of having a free fruit orchard in the park, I can't think of a better use."

The city has set aside money from a recently approved bond issue and other sources to create garden spaces, but what's missing is a network of individuals who are willing to plant and maintain gardens, said Fabian Chavez, city Parks Division director.

"It's good from a general stewardship perspective. The more you have the community in the park, the more eyes you have on the park, the more of a sense of ownership," said Chavez. "Wherever it is possible, if we have land available, a water source and the neighborhood supports it, we think it's a good idea."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.