The 10th anniversary of the RAP Community Garden celebrates past and looks toward future
Since opening in April 2016, Riverside Avondale Preservation’s Community Garden, located at the corner of Park Street & Azalea Terrace within the larger Willowbranch Park, has been cultivating community wellness, along with an array of foliage, vegetation, and produce, as part of RAP’s mission to preserve, enhance, and celebrate the public spaces of Riverside Avondale. The Community Garden was the first of its kind in Jacksonville and has endured while many others throughout the metro area have started and fallen dormant or completely shut down. After a decade of growth and development, RAP looks back on its past with gratitude and looks toward its future with excitement and eager anticipation.
The Garden was designed by Dorina Bakari of Jacksonville’s American Institute of Architects (AIA) as part of its Emerging Design Professionals subcommittee. Bakari’s serpentine design features a curving, horizontal wall made of slatted wood that ranges in height along the perimeter of the Garden. The curves’ undulations create public seating with benches constructed into both the wall’s interior and exterior spaces.
The Garden sits within the footprint of the former Willowbranch Rose Garden, which was a parcel of the first land purchased by the City of Jacksonville for Willowbranch Park in 1916, exactly a century before the Community Garden opened to the public. The Garden operates as a public-private partnership between the City’s Parks & Recreation Department, JaxParks, and RAP.
The Garden was built by a group of dedicated volunteers and since that time, has been maintained each year by between 30-80 gardeners who operate a single plot. The gardeners grow their own plants, flowers, and vegetables in assigned plots and are responsible for the upkeep of their plots through volunteer service hours. Today, 52 gardeners maintain and operate 32 plots in the Garden. To join the waitlist and be notified when plots becomes available, visit our website.
Year 10 Milestones – Growing into the Future
This past spring, Carson Schwab, an intern with the University of North Florida’s Environmental Leadership Program, worked in the Garden to create educational signage that helps visitors learn more about seasonal produce, insects, and more. The signage will be installed later this fall.
Battling the brutal heat of this past summer, the wood of all 32 plot beds was replaced with major support from Bold City Properties.
The newest addition to the Garden, anticipated to open in spring 2027, will be a Kids Pizza Garden! This interactive space will be free and open to kids and will feature harvestable toppings perfect for pizza, such as tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, leading to an interactive, educational, and fun evening at home. Fundraising for the Kids Pizza Garden is currently underway. If you are interested to give to the project, please visit here and make a note indicating that your gift is for the Kids Pizza Garden.
The Roots of Willowbranch Park
The Kids Pizza Garden will become a destination space in the neighborhood, connected to the nearby additions to the Willowbranch Park system in the fourth quarter of 2026. In November, the grand opening of the new Willowbranch Park library-themed playground is expected. And across Park Street, a meditative, Chartres Labyrinth will be enclosed with the new Peace Memorial Park grand entrance, seating areas, landscaping, and memorials.
The Next 10
As we reflect on ten years of ongoing work, maintenance, and operations in the Community Garden, we also look forward to the next decade. After maintaining a healthy waitlist for plots, we are confident that the demand will stay strong, and we can bring in gardeners willing to learn and experiment to continue the mission of preserving, enhancing and celebrating this public space of Riverside Avondale.