Community gardens are sprouting throughout the Triangle - a local reflection of the national urban-farming movement that aims to bring fresh food to needy areas.

The phenomenon noticeably hit Raleigh just a few years ago. Already, the gardens have united communities, provided many residents with a cheap alternative to grocery-store produce and brought a steady stream of veggies to local food banks that feed the hungry.

And their popularity has spread to Morrisville, where select members of the town's environmental and recycling and parks and recreation advisory committees have spent the past few months exploring ideas for a community garden here.

Where and when that garden will sprout remains to be seen, although members of Morrisville's subcommittee have expressed interest in getting started within the next year.

Town officials say it's likely the garden will emerge as a not-for-profit entity managed by residents, perhaps even some of those who have sat on Morrisville's community garden subcommittee.

"We'll still provide support with promotion and guidance," said Stacie Galloway, public information officer in Morrisville. "But the burden of it will fall on them to organize it, manage it and fund it."

Elsewhere in the Triangle, meanwhile, online meeting groups already have hundreds of residents trying to start their own gardens.

Downtown Raleigh's Marbles Kids Museum, for example, sponsored a "DigIn" community garden forum this spring.

The Wake County Center, part of the state's Cooperative Extension Service, has a "master gardener" dedicated to community gardening.

The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, a Triangle-based nonprofit, has started three gardens in the past 14 months.

And Raleigh planners are exploring what a city gardening program should look like.

Community gardens don't have a set blueprint, says Sherman Criner, one of the Wake County Center's master gardeners.

Some divide the gardens by square footage. Others require workers to put in a minimum number of hours each week to partake of the harvest. Some are educational and include gardening lessons.

"It's an amazing community service, and the people are all different," said Criner, who is helping start community gardens in Raleigh, Cary and Garner. "It all boils down to people eating better and growing their own food. It's a very simple concept when you think of it, but it's a difficult task."

But Western Wake residents are learning.

Learning the ropes

In Cary, husband and wife team Keith and Gioia Bliss organized and helped plant a community garden earlier this year behind a rental home at 112 Dry Avenue. Both had a desire to eat healthier, save money and encourage their neighbors to do the same.

"What it all boiled down to is that we've got three little kids, and we just realized how much our food supply and our food system is really out of whack," said Keith Bliss, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty, which owns the land now occupied by the non-profit Cary Pocket Community Garden.

"I learned about [community gardens] more in the last eight or nine months after paying attention to my own nutrition," he added.

Bliss said he pointed out to his wife one day how much they were spending on a gallon of milk. Livestock are not a part of the garden on Dry Avenue. But the remark led the couple to brainstorm ways they could save money and contribute to a community cause.

The resulting garden occupies a 60-by-100 foot section of the Dry Avenue lot. Currently growing in it are a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers, including tomatoes, peppers, berries and basil.

Much of the produce is donated to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. So far, Bliss says, the group has given away about 150 pounds of food, or about half of its crop. The rest is shared among the roughly 15 current members of the Cary Pocket Community Garden.

Neither Bliss or his wife has a background in horticulture or agriculture. But some of their volunteer members do. The Blisses hope to utilize that expertise - and connections made within the community and among group members - to educate others about the value of community gardens.

Already in the works is an educational series on gardening for children. And Bliss said the group is exploring a partnership with nearby Cary Elementary School to integrate the garden into science lessons.

"Our real goal is just to make sure that we're positively impacting lives," he said.

Fruits of their labor

Service organizations such as the food shuttle also get steady donations of vegetables from other community gardens, many of which are owned by local churches that started gardening to give food to others.

First United Methodist Church, on South Academy Street in Cary, is one example.

Lauren Shaffer, co-chair of First United Methodist's gardening committee, said the church started the Gracious Harvest Community Garden last year to give to the needy. The church has partnered with Dorcas Ministries and The Carying Place to accomplish that goal.

"We are a giving-based garden and a missions-first group," Shaffer said. "Instead of a gleaning-based garden, we give the first fruits of our produce to our local neighbors in need."

She added that the church initially had planned to donate up to 20 percent of its crops. But so far, First United Methodist has given away as much of 90 percent of its produce. The remainder is shared among the roughly 160 member volunteers - young and old, singles and couples - who help to tend the garden.

"This has really built a sense of community," Shaffer said. "It has done a lot to bring people together just in their work clothes rather than in their suits on Sunday morning."

Citizens weigh in

In Morrisville, interest is slowly building in what would become the first community garden in town.

Steve Dickinson, parks and grounds superintendent in Morrisville, said town officials are pitching in where they can by helping to scout out possible town-owned sites where a future garden group might be able to lease land for their project. He said land discussions have mostly centered around a few sites along Church Street.

"We're looking to see if all the parameters would fall into place," Dickinson said. "There are specific things the site would need, such as sunlight and water. We'd also have to look at whose land it is, whether it reasonably could be used and whether it would remain available for use in the future."

Galloway noted that Morrisville also has solicited input from citizens through an online survey on the town's website.

Among other things, the questionnaire asks residents whether they would be interested in participating in or managing a community garden and whether they would be willing to donate equipment or land to the cause.

Of the 145 responses received since late June, Galloway said about 85 percent indicated an interest in participating in a community garden.

"It's really an uncharacteristically high level of response for one of our surveys," Galloway said. "It sounds like this concept is really catching on."