Learning About Community Gardens

For six months we planned a trip to Boston for a commencement ceremony of Ruth's granddaughter who finished at Emerson College in December; they have only one ceremony in May. Originally, the plan was to drive the whole way there and back, and we spent hours plotting distances between what we thought would be interesting points along Highway 2 – there weren't very many.

However, after filling our gas tank one day for almost $50, we concluded in unison: “Let's fly.” We boiled our “interesting places” down to two: Cape Cod, which we had both visited years ago, and the Berkshires that neither of us had explored before.

On the Cape we had a timeshare with room enough for Ruth's son and his family, four people including the graduate. This was at Falmouth, a very nice town at the inner Cape. But the weather was disappointingly like Birch Bay: rain most days.

On a walk in Falmouth one morning we explored a neat housing development – houses are spiffy on the Cape – that led to a community garden, which supplies a food bank. Spaces with water and tools are free with the understanding that participants will donate half of what they grow to the food bank, as explained by this local. He said most of the growers work hard. Generally, the beds looked impressive. Only one plot looked abandoned, and our friend said the other gardeners would be patient until taking action to expel that individual to make room for someone on the waiting list.

For several years we have talked about developing a community garden on the small lot where we've been “Farmers Growing Trees for Salmon.” This Fall the trees will be gone and the program closed.

Last year we built and planted a sample raised bed. When we returned from our trip we found our lettuce was growing well. But the cost of the raised bed makes that approach impractical. In the Spring we will offer ground spaces for planting.

For the Berkshires we scheduled a visit to the Nutrition Center in Great Barrington that is operated by Peter Stanton, nationally known for helping children prevent obesity. His message is, “Eat more vegetables.” He finds that when kids learn to cook vegetables they will want to eat more. In his kitchen the appliances and table are at kid height.

Naturally, he has a community garden on his property and the weekly farmers market is held on adjacent property that belongs to the hospital that is nearby. While clients of the Nutrition Center are all ages and incomes – half of the Center's revenue is from physician referrals paid by insurance – he wants to garden to have low-income growers who are charged $30 per year. “When people pay, they care,” Peter explains.