Taking Root

Good things growing at Plattsburgh Community Garden

Story and photos by Megan W. Munroe

The noontime sun is high in the cloudless sky. The late summer breeze is still without even a hint of the approaching autumn chill. Instead, it greets the nose with the earthy aromas of basil and rosemary. This year’s harvest waits in neat parallel rows, basking in the remaining days and hours of sunlight until familiar hands come to pluck the fruits — and vegetables — of their labor.

Nestled in a corner of the sprawling Melissa L. Penfield Park, the Plattsburgh Community Garden may not look like much at first glance. It is not particularly large, and perhaps not as beautiful as the landscapes usually featured in glossy gardening magazines. But taking just a few moments of introspection, one begins to better appreciate the peace and hushed contentment that ever-so-quietly resonates between the swaying stalks of flowers gently nodding to the slow and steady rhythm of the wind. Bees of all kinds buzz from one sunflower to the next. Tiny butterflies hurry to and from each outstretched leaf like delicate white-gloved ladies on mid-morning errands. And freshly fallen pink petals lie in repose, a sign that the growing season is coming to a close and their time is nearly up.

"Not only did they grow food, they grew relationships."

The close of this season carries more significance than ever for the community garden, as this year is its very first. The project began in the winter 2008, when the Plattsburgh Community Garden Group announced its first formal meetings and definitive plans started to take shape. The group’s goal was to create a garden that any community member could purchase a space in and have easy access to helpful resources, water and tools. There were “a lot of hurdles” to cross before this goal became a reality says Doug Butdorf, who first suggested bringing a community garden to Plattsburgh and has since been the garden group’s primary organizer. The group had to work with the city to change zoning laws, find a location and seek out donations or other funding to purchase necessary. After overcoming these obstacles, the community garden was able to offer 32 4’x25’ plots at $25 each — all of which were booked in the inaugural year.

Erin McGill was intrigued by the idea of a community garden from the beginning. Now a member of the garden group, McGill was one of the people who bought a plot in the first year. The garden sits just behind Bailey Ave. Elementary School, where McGill is a first-grade teacher, so it was easy for her to work in her plot several times a week. McGill purchased the plot with two friends and planted tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, eggplant, herbs, flowers, lettuce and lavender. A blight killed the garden’s tomato crop, but McGill says she still harvested a lot of produce.

McGill used the vegetables she harvested in much of her cooking — lots of salads, tacos, and even an attempt at baba ganoush, though McGill adds, “We didn’t have enough eggplant so it tasted funny.” For McGill, the community garden wasn’t about saving money on produce, but it was satisfying to “watch it grow from the beginning and know that you helped make it.”

Colette Bonelli, another plot owner and first-time gardener, says she learned a lot from the experience and that working in the community garden was a great way to meet people.

Gardener Tara Frederick agreed, adding that it wasn’t uncommon for “complete strangers” to start talking to her while she tended her plot. Frederick says that because she lives in an apartment, she relishes the opportunity to have a garden space and work outside, while giving her children time to play outdoors.

Bonelli, Frederick, and other gardeners, organizers and supporters of the community garden gathered at the first annual Harvest Party Sept. 12 to discuss these successes as well as some setbacks, and share plans for the future.

“Even though we’ve had these failures, everyone’s had so many wonderful successes,” Gary Kroll, Plattsburgh State professor and member of the garden group’s board of directors, says of the garden’s overcoming such obstacles as the tomato blight, a wet summer, and a Japanese beetle problem. “It makes up for the lack of tomatoes.” Kroll says the garden group hopes to open another community garden next summer on the South Side of Plattsburgh, a plan City Councilor Mike Kelly says he will support. Kelly supported the garden project from its early stages and was impressed with what it has brought to the community so far.

“It allowed members of our community to have gardens they might not otherwise have had,” he says. “Not only did they (gardeners) grow food, they grew relationships.”

Kelly says he hopes to see such community-building spread to other neighborhoods.

Other possible new additions for next year include raised beds and “beginner plots” where first-timers could receive extra help, says Anne Lenox-Barlow, a horticulture educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension who also taught workshops at the garden this past summer.

What would you grow in your garden plot?