Terry Southwell is the site director for the recently completed Cherry Creek Community Garden.[/caption]

CHERRY CREEK Residents in the Cherry Creek neighborhood celebrated the completion of a community garden April 25, which was created with assistance from the city’s Neighborhood Partnering Program.

The program enables local residents to improve their neighborhoods by cost-matching local projects and recently began accepting applications for its June 1 deadline, Program Manager Justin Golbabai said. Bicycle and pedestrian improvements are among the types of projects it supports.

“The whole goal of our program is to empower neighborhoods through a community,” he said.

The Cherry Creek Community Garden, located at 5618 Bayton Loop, has been in the making since June 2011, said area resident Terry Southwell, site director for the garden. Residents decided they wanted to turn a negative—torn-down houses in the Bayton Loop area that were part of the floodplain—into a positive, he said.

“The community is really behind it and really excited about it,” he said.

Members can plant their own vegetables and access a pavilion and a tool shed. Members must abide by garden rules, pay a $20 deposit and use organic practices. There are no open plots, but interested parties can sign up for the garden’s waiting list, Southwell said.

More details are available at www.facebook.com/cherrycreekgardens.