Metro Atlanta gardens help refugees provide for themselves and feel at home

Farming boots are hung on the fence of Decatur’s Kitchen Garden, which houses more than two dozen garden plots for about 30 families to grow their own food. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

On a warm and breezy Georgia spring day, Susan Pavlin walks through Decatur’s Legacy Park, past brick buildings and down a shaded boardwalk. 

She opens a creaking gate that reveals a two-acre garden split into more than two dozen plots, known to the community as Decatur’s Kitchen Garden.

“We have about 30 families growing food for themselves, the rest of their families and sometimes their neighbors, depending on how much extra bounty they have out of the garden,” Pavlin said.