October 2, 2009
by Molly Pickel
When is the last time you went to a garden to pick a tomato for your spaghetti sauce or pulled a carrot right out of the ground? Have you been yearning for heirloom vegetables that don’t come wrapped in plastic? If you wish you could garden but don’t have a backyard or don’t get six hours of full sun in the yard you do have, then a community garden could solve your problems.
What is a community garden?
A community garden is a plot of land in a central location that is used by local residents to grow vegetables and flowers. Participants are responsible for their own raised garden beds, but work together to keep common areas tidy, create an efficient watering system and compost waste.
I became interested in community gardening this summer when my family participated in a small garden next to the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps building. We planted and successfully harvested carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, basil, thyme, rosemary and tomatoes, though it was a bad season for this garden favorite. We visited the garden just about every other day to water, weed and harvest. I really enjoyed going there, but since there are no more spaces at the CVAC plot, I would like to see if there is enough interest to start another community garden.
Over the last several years new community gardens have flourished. And it’s easy to see why since these community farmers have saved money on food, helped the environment and enjoyed fresh local, delicious produce. In addition, my experience showed me that gardening can be a lot of fun.
Why do we need this in Chappaqua?
It’s true that many residents of Chappaqua have adequate space to support a private garden. However, their land may not be appropriate for gardening. Gardens need good soil on flat land that receives at least six hours of sunlight in the summer. Also, with the large population of deer eating everything in sight, both flower and vegetable gardens need to be surrounded by extensive fencing. This can get expensive. But in a community garden, less fencing is used per garden spot and the price is divided among all the participants. There are also many people living in condominiums who do not have their own land for gardening, who could benefit from having a community garden.
How can you get involved?
The need and interest in another Chappaqua community garden has to be assessed before we can start one. So, if you are interested, please send an e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your name and any preference or suggestion for a location, for example, downtown Chappaqua, Millwood, a town park, etc. Also, I will be at Community Day near the Girl Scouts if you would like to ask any questions or express interest in person. Since the garden is not yet established, there are many opportunities to help with the selection of a site and building it if you are interested.
Molly Pickel is a junior at Horace Greeley High School. Over the summer, she enjoyed creating recipes to use up the over-abundance of zucchini from her garden.
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