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On Tuesday July 9 The
Land Conservancy of New Jersey held the official grand opening of our Community
Garden at South Branch Preserve in Mount Olive.
In attendance at the event were nearly 60 individuals including local gardeners and officials from Mt. Olive Township, the Highlands Council, New Jersey Green
Acres, and The Land Conservancy.
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| Roy Groething Images, www.roygroething.com |
Mt. Olive Township Mayor Robert Greenbaum kicked off the event
with a welcome to everyone. In his
welcome, the mayor celebrated the garden as a place for people to interact and
build new relationships, “neighbor meeting neighbor.” David Epstein, President of The Land
Conservancy, also gave a warm welcome to all of the attendees and provided some
background on the garden as well as The Land Conservancy’s goals for the future
of the property.
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| Roy Groething Images, www.roygroething.com |
Rory Corrigan, Chairman
of the Board of Trustees of The Land Conservancy, recognized several
individuals who contributed to the garden including Mt. Olive Township, state
representatives, and garden volunteers. Plaques
were presented to the Mt. Olive Township Council and Casey & Keller, Inc.
for their outstanding work and support for the garden.
After the informal ceremony, attendees were invited to tour the
garden and see what the gardeners have been able to create from their plots. Many of the guests wandered the garden, as
the gardeners proudly showed off their produce.
Mayor Rob Greenbaum was even invited by gardener Mary Ellen Alcock to
pick a zucchini from her garden plot.
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| Roy Groething Images, www.roygroething.com |
The gardeners come
from many different backgrounds and professions and have different levels of
gardening experience as well as purposes for gardening. Several of the gardeners live in condominiums
and apartments, and have limited space for planting. Other gardeners have large yards and gardens
of their own, but want to meet new people in the area. Some have young children and want to teach
them that food not only comes from grocery stores and fast food restaurants but
can come from the earth with a little patience and care.
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| Roy Groething Images, www.roygroething.com |
We didn’t realize
that it would be much easier to build a community in the garden than it was to
build the garden itself. Constructing
the garden took many hours of planning and physical labor. In order to keep the disturbance to a
minimum, the parking lot was built on the former site of a house that had been
there when the property was a farm. To
irrigate the garden, a well was dug, and pump was installed and hooked up to
electricity. The garden area was tilled
and fenced in. The 10’x10’ plots were
laid out with mulch paths dividing them.
This involved pushing countless wheelbarrows full of mulch into the
garden. Before the mulching was
finished, ditches to accommodate rubber tubing for the irrigation were
dug. The spigots were installed, and the
mulch paths were finished.
While the “garden”
part was not easy, the “community” part came naturally. The Land Conservancy is delighted to have a
group of gardeners who are willing to help manage the garden. A strong volunteer committee is already in
place to take over a great deal of the management responsibilities relating to
the garden. Many garden members have put
in a special effort to make sure the garden is successful. One volunteer, Kimberly Blais, went to Lowe’s
and Home Depot and was able to get 10 hoses donated to the garden. Another gardener, Linda Amatucci, is donating a wooden picnic table to go in the garden seating area. Shelly Morningstar has offered to weed the plots that haven’t been sold this year and
organize a crew to help her.
Additionally, Two
leaders from the volunteer committee, Alicia Louie and Perri O’Flynn have
stepped forward to organize the first potluck dinner, an opportunity for the
gardeners to get to know each other and share the food they have grown. The dinner will be on August 8 from 6-9 pm. These are just a few of many examples of the
generous efforts the gardeners are making to ensure that this garden is
beautiful and successful.
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| Roy Groething Images, www.roygroething.com |
Other garden events have included a seedling sale and an educational meeting on organic gardening hosted by two master gardeners. We are in the process of planning more events such as yoga in the garden, and we would like to set up a food donation program for gardeners to give their extra produce to local food pantries.
Click on the link to watch Mayor Greenbaum's address at the grand opening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0X4GvAUGQE
Click on the link to watch Mayor Greenbaum's address at the grand opening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0X4GvAUGQE
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