[Community_garden] In spite of snow, dreams of community gardens - Vermont, USA

[Don Boekelheide]

Times Argus
Montpellier, Vermont, USA

Feb 18, 2007

Network seeks to bolster community gardens throughout
Vermont

By Gordon Dritschilo

It was an odd day to talk about gardening.

People walking into the Rutland Free Library for the
Vermont Community Garden Network's symposium navigated
their way around massive snow piles.

"A lot of folks are probably up on the mountain
skiing," said Jim Flint, executive director of the
Friends of Burlington Gardens. "We're here thinking
about spring."

The Vermont Community Garden Network is an outreach
program run by Friends of Burlington Gardens. Flint
said the event on Saturday, which drew eight people
for the morning session, is part of a series to
promote community gardens around the state. The
previous symposium, held in Burlington earlier this
month, drew a crowd of 50, he said. The next one is
Feb. 24 in Springfield.

"That should be a little bigger," he said. "That one's
at the Howard Dean Center and we have a cluster of
gardeners in Windsor and Windham Counties."

Flint said the network handed out $10,000 in
mini-grants to 48 community garden projects around the
state last year. He said the network, which was
launched in 2006, has 300 members and hopes to grow to
500 by the end of the year. The gardens range from
small school projects to large, town-wide efforts.

Most of the participants on Saturday were
representatives of community garden projects, many of
which received support from the network. They
discussed their operations and offered advice to those
looking to start similar projects.

Cyndi Wight of the Rutland Department of Recreation
talked about how the city reinvigorated a community
garden that had been dormant for several years. She
said the city took over the site and cleared away
plastic, broken glass, old fencing and even a
broken-down wheel barrel.

"There were probably about four or five active users,"
she said. "Last year, we had 30 users. It's a good
start. There's still definitely empty plots, though."

Wight said the city offers plots ranging from 20 feet
by 20 feet to 20 feet by 40 feet and is planning to
add a community tool shed.

Wendy Savery of Wallingford said she was inspired by a
4-H seminar to start a garden as an educational
project at Wallingford Day Care.

"We had 25 participants — a core group of about a
dozen kids from first to fifth grade were there every
day," she said.

Through the gardening project, the children learned
about how food is grown. While the garden did well
overall, Savery said they got a late start which
affected their yield. She plans to begin earlier this
year.

T.J. Norris of Pownal was looking to start a community
garden.

"Just last year the town purchased some land with
plans of maybe making it where a new town hall would
go, when we get money for a town hall," she said.
"It's a level space. It's sunny, there's a spring
nearby."

The site is also a short walk from the town's
preschool.

"I think it's an ideal situation," she said. "The
challenges are, how big do we start? How do we get
people energized? How big of a plot do you give each
person? These are the questions were talking about."

Flint said the network works with statewide and
national organizations to obtain grants and technical
assistance for community gardening projects.

"A lot of different groups are interested in
supporting local foods," he said. "When we started
this effort last year we thought we'd work with 20
gardens around the state. We found more than 40. 

Every single garden that applied for a grant got
something."

Contact Gordon Dritschilo at
gordon.dritschilo at rutlandherald.com.
www.timesargus.com