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Leader of the patch
Leslie Wade, manager of Charleston’s Magnolia Park and Community Garden, displays a fall harvest that will be donated to a local homeless shelter.
Photo by Ruta Smith
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Personal touch
Raised beds make planting, watering and weeding a manageable task, and provide volunteer gardeners the opportunity to personalize their assigned plots.
Photo by Ruta Smith
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Passing the shovel
Steve Degnen overcame initial resistance from neighbors to build the now-thriving I’On community garden in Mount Pleasant. His friend and neighbor, April Gordon, has taken over the role of garden coordinator.
Photo by Mic Smith
It’s a warmer-than-normal morning in early November, and the last drops of dew are just drying on the leafy vegetables in Magnolia Park and Community Garden. Eight volunteers, outfitted with work gloves, wide-brimmed hats and garden shears, stand ready to tackle today’s chores.
Surrounded by dozens of raised-bed gardens bursting with cool-season crops, the volunteers watch and listen intently as garden manager Leslie Wade demonstrates how to harvest Asian greens. This harvest, along with produce from 14 other garden beds, will be donated today to a homeless shelter in downtown Charleston.
Tucked in a neighborhood just west of the Ashley River, the Magnolia community garden is part of the Charleston Parks Conservancy’s Community Gardening Program. Not only do nearby residents grow their own food here, this garden also produces and donates more than 2,400 pounds of fresh produce annually to those in need.
Wade manages the volunteers, as well as the garden that serves as a place to connect with fellow gardeners. “Really, we’re a little family,” she says of this tight-knit bunch.
The scene on this bright morning may seem idyllic, but it is clear the thriving, sustainable garden is the result of a well-organized group with experienced gardeners at the helm. The three-part philosophy that guides them is marked on a blackboard above a produce-washing sink on site: Learn to garden naturally. Work with your neighbors. Give back to your community.
A growing trend
Food gardening is part of a huge national trend, and community gardens are a growing part of the movement. The National Gardening Association’s “Garden to Table” study found that between 2008 and 2013, participation in community gardens grew by 2 million households—a 200 percent increase in just five years. Millennials contribute as one of the fastest-growing groups of food gardeners, and gardeners over the age of 55 are also steadily on the rise.
The crew gathered at Magnolia garden is a mix that includes young moms and retirees, some with kids and dogs in tow. During this scheduled workday, Wade assigns them various chores. Some sow seeds of cool-season crops in a nearby greenhouse; others wash freshly harvested kohlrabi in the tub-sized sink. Several are filling baskets with herbs and greens for the shelter.
“It’s very therapeutic,” volunteer Jennifer Clayton says. Along with helping on garden workdays, Clayton leases her own plot in the garden with a friend and enjoys occasional gardening classes here.
Community gardens vary, but generally, they are gardens that are collectively tended by a group of people, and they can be found in urban, suburban and rural areas. Neighborhoods, community centers, churches, schools and food banks are common locations for community gardens.
Often, the land is subdivided into plots, but it may be one large garden shared by many. Some gardens donate all harvests to people in need, while others let gardeners keep what they grow to feed their own families. Some, like Magnolia garden, are a hybrid.
A desire to help is common among the volunteers at Magnolia, which regularly surpasses its annual goal of raising 1,500 pounds of produce to donate. “People often drive by the garden and stop in to say, ‘Hey, I want to be part of the community; I want to give back,’ Wade says. “Some folks volunteer for one or two years before they even join the waiting list for their own garden beds.”
While every garden is as different as the people who work it, there are key steps to take before planting the first seed.
Nine years ago, Steve Degnen had just retired and was looking for a volunteer opportunity in his new neighborhood, called I’On, in Mount Pleasant. He wanted to start a community garden.
“I’On had many established clubs and events, but most broke down into special-interest groups based on age, with or without kids, work or retired, et cetera,” Degnen says. “I saw an opportunity to create a neighborhood amenity that would join people together, foster new friendships, and focus on the environment and better health.”
Degnen met some initial resistance from neighbors who believed a community garden would lower their real estate values. Undeterred, he and a few interested neighbors built three small raised beds as a pilot project, then polled the community to see who else liked the idea. Meanwhile, he says, “I contacted community gardens across the country and gained an understanding of best demonstrated practices.”
His research paid off. Using what he learned, Degnen delivered a presentation to the I’On homeowners’ association, complete with detailed development costs, layout design, a 3,000-foot land request in a community park, access to a water supply and initial funding for 30 raised beds. The HOA granted $7,500, and Degnen’s volunteer group completed the project under budget. Since then, the garden has been self-sustaining, using dues of $50 per year from community gardeners to stay in production. More than 500 gardeners have participated.
The I’On Community Garden opens its application process each New Year’s Eve and sells out within days. In his pitch to interested gardeners, Degnen says that, in exchange for that $50 fee, they’ll get a 5-foot-by-8-foot garden plot, access to master gardeners who’ll provide expert advice, a startup kit with planting guidelines, helpful hints and links, a beautiful sunny location, a chance to eat fresh, healthy foods right from the garden, mulched paths around each plot for easy access, watering hoses available on location and a perimeter fence to keep out small critters.
At Magnolia garden, 4-foot-by-8-foot raised beds also lease for $50 per year. Charleston Parks Conservancy supplies access to water, compost twice a year for top-dressing beds, and Wade, a trained horticulturist, who is there to offer guidance and support to anyone who needs it.
Leader of the patch
No matter how small the community garden, committed organizers need to map out the details, such as the application process, space assignments, and who will pay for water, seeds and soil amendments.
“I have people contact me constantly about setting up community gardens,” Wade says. “The first thing I tell them: Make sure you have community support. If you don't have at least 15 people already engaged, there is no point in continuing.”
And, every garden needs a leader, someone who can be a champion for the garden and the key to its success. This person serves as its administrator, someone who is not above watering, weeding and enforcing rules for the common good, when necessary.
Maintenance and upkeep, including weeding, timely harvests and removal of garden debris, often top a list of rules. An attractive garden ensures curb appeal and keeps other neighbors happy. While most community gardens leave crop selection to individual gardeners, some have rules like I’On’s that advise gardeners to use plants or stakes to corral plants inside their boundaries and avoid shading out neighbors’ beds.
Summer vacations can lead to neglected gardens, so garden organizers suggest finding a “garden sitter” during extended absences. Sometimes, leaders specify how long a garden may go unattended before it’s forfeited and reassigned. Pets can cause damage, so they may be banned. But, community gardens are family friendly; most, like I’On, welcome supervised children.
At Magnolia, one of the posted rules is a reminder to harvest only from beds that are your own or are labeled as public. And, Wade says, “We expect gardeners to grow something year-round in this climate; otherwise, they have to give up their space.” Her emails and Facebook posts suggest crops gardeners might like to try next.
“While gardening is rewarding, it isn’t easy,” Degnen says. “People who want to start a community garden need to be realistic. Volunteers wear out. Weeds, drought, blazing-hot South Carolina summers and hurricanes do good gardeners in.”
Growing conditions
For those just getting started with a community garden, the American Community Gardening Association (communitygarden.org) offers helpful resources on its website, including customizable, sample community garden contracts, tips for local advocacy and step-by-step guides for successful community gardens. Both Magnolia and I’On also take advantage of area Clemson Master Gardener volunteers to provide advice and technical support for community members who are learning to garden.
Selecting a good location means finding a site with at least eight hours of sun each day. Vegetables need lots of water, so if no water source exists, adding one may be a costly step the group will need to consider. “Water is critical,” Wade says. “A storage shed for tools is convenient, but water and full sun are absolutely key.”
Vegetables also require well-drained soil. Raised beds can help, but no one wants to wade through muddy, soggy conditions to get to the garden. Mulched paths wide enough for two people to pass help keep weeds down around beds and improve safety for gardeners.
Raised beds help overcome other common obstacles to success by saving space, improving drainage and making use of sites with poor soil. Communities often prefer them as more attractive than conventional tilled gardens. And, they’re easier to maintain without mechanized equipment—a critical factor for keeping volunteers engaged.
“I’ve seen gardeners get really aggravated by lack of boundaries in a large, tilled community garden, and the weeds can be overwhelming,” Wade says.
The ideal width for each bed is 3 to 4 feet—easy to reach the center of the bed. Length can vary, but they should be short enough for gardeners to access both sides without a lot of extra steps. And, Wade notes, “Raised beds keep community gardens accessible to everyone, regardless of their physical abilities.”
Nearby parking and easy access to vehicles—for unloading supplies and loading the harvest—are also helpful considerations.
More than vegetables
During Magnolia’s morning workday, several young mothers with busy toddlers gathered around a children’s garden bed set aside for little ones to grow their own plants. The families planted seeds, pulled weeds and used a watering can to water seedlings. A little girl came upon a swallowtail caterpillar on a fennel plant, and the grown-up gardeners nearby marveled over her discovery with her.
As he watered plants in the two raised beds he leases at Magnolia, lifelong gardener Bob O’Brien recalled teaching his children to garden years ago in a patch he set aside for them in his home garden. Now, his daughter runs a 1-acre, nonprofit donation garden in New Jersey. Community gardens, he says, are about much more than growing vegetables.
“This garden has enhanced the community,” says O’Brien, who harvested more than 60 pounds of sweet potatoes from his Magnolia plot last year. “People come here to sit and walk around. They are finding a much-needed sense of serenity.”
At the end of each growing season, Degnen says, he hopes gardeners “look back on the gardening season and think about all of the good times they had, how fresh food tastes so much better, what they learned and friends they made. And, hopefully start thinking about signing up for next year.”
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Get more
Need some tips for starting a community garden in your area? Check out these resources:
The American Community Gardening Association has a resources page with tips for gardeners, how-to manuals and sample documents for those just getting started at communitygarden.org/resources/category/community-garden-management/.
Clemson Cooperative Extension offers a guide called “Starting a Community Garden."