MIDDLETOWN — When Cynda Kash moved to downtown Middletown 10 years ago, she knew that the empty lot on Reynolds Avenue, a remnant of an abandoned urban renewal project, would be a great greenspace.

It took some time and the help of a community to make it happen, but Kash’s vision came to fruition Saturday with the dedication of the Reynolds Avenue Community Garden between Curtis and Clinton streets.

Her first collaborator was Pastor Carrie Jena of the Gathering Church, a mission of the United Methodist Church. She had previously met Jena at a community concert and later ran into her at a historic preservation event.

Knowing that they shared an interest in community beautification, she caught her ear and started talking about her vision for the empty lot, and the pastor agreed to make it a project of the church.

Making a community garden, Kash said, was an appropriate use of the lot because that part of Middletown is so removed from any sources of fresh food that it is designated a “food desert.”

Together, they contacted the city, which agreed to lease them the block for $1 a year.

Gathering Church member Rob Shuler, whom Kash calls her “carpenter extraordinaire,” latched on to the project to build raised plots for the gardens because the soil was too gravelly and compacted to be plowed.

The project was financed through donations from individuals and businesses and a grant from the Middltown Community Foundation. Noah Rogers, an Eagle Scout candidate from Troop 572 out of the Grace Baptist Church, made the creation of a rain drum to catch water for the gardens his Eagle Scout project.

This year, the garden will have 24 beds available to rent out at a cost of $30 to $40 a year.

“We have room for 60 beds,” Kash said, “but I don’t know if we’ll ever need that many.”

The project turned out to have another happy ending in that the Gathering Church found a home in a former adult day care adjacent to the property.

“We had the vision of the garden,” Jena said, “then saw the building and started praying about it.”

It became available in January. The church is already using the building, including serving hot dogs and burgers at Saturday’s celebration, and hope to be fully moved in sometime this summer.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.