Garden Update and Restoration Planting

The Land Conservancy of New Jersey’s Community Garden at South Branch Preserve is in its second year. The garden has expanded to 148 plots with only 6 plots not sold this year. Gardeners are planting everything in their plots from tomatoes, squash, and beans, to strawberries, lettuce, and cucumbers. The gardens are filled with trellises and posts to support the bountiful vegetables that will soon come. Some gardeners have personalized their gardens by adding stones to the outside of their garden or placing windmills in their garden. Each garden is unique in its own way and it will be exciting to see them later in the season.

Even on an overcast day, people are still working in the garden.

               Some gardeners look at each other’s plot.

Part of The Land Conservancy of New Jersey’s goal is to restore former farm land back to a forested area. Restoration plans at The South Branch Preserve have already started, with the planting of 950 trees and 3500 shrubs in the back three fields behind the community garden. The planters had a very organized system of how to plant the trees on these large fields (Shown above). 

One person would drive a tractor while someone else sat on the back of it. Then a plow, attached to the tractor, would be lowered in order to dig up the soil where the tree would be planted. The person on the back of the tractor would place a tree into the newly dug hole and other workers would pat the soil down around the tree. Planting started on May 17 and continued all of that week. In a couple of years, the once flat, open fields will be transformed into the beginnings of a large, dense forest!

Loading up the trailer, getting ready to plant!

Any questions contact gardenmanager@tlc-nj.org or (973)541-1010 x14