FOOD
LORRAINE BALLATO
Just Another Community Garden – Or Is It?
PHOTOS COURTESY LORRAINE BALLATO
Community gardens are fairly common these days. You can find them all over the country, especially since the inception of the Garden Writers Association’ s PAR( Plant a Row for the Hungry) initiative 22 years ago. But maybe you will find this community garden a bit different. Officially, it is the Fairfield County( Connecticut) Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, but it’ s so much more.
The garden has a lot going for it. It is located directly on a main road and very visible to the hundreds of vehicles that pass by daily. Our deer fence gets a lot of attention and draws people in to ask about it. The garden is adjacent to the weekly farmers market, which attracts many visitors with children in hand. Kids are great fun to have in the garden, and we try to grow things for them such as stevia( sweet leaf). The children sample it and learn about something sweet they can grow at home. Homeless shelters also like stevia for their diabetic clients.
Each season we try different things. Last year we grew climbing Malabar spinach on a trellis for people who have limited space. We handed out samples( We think of ourselves as a very mini-Costco!) to encourage the public to grow it. Our local markets feature purslane as a salad green, which was growing as a weed in our cold frame. We harvested it for sampling, so visitors could taste it before they made a purchase. The 2016 addition of a three-sisters garden drew a tremendous amount of interest. Everyone got a history lesson and our recipients got the produce.
GARDENING WITH PURPOSE For 2017, we added a straw bale garden in addition to a pallet garden, an inspiration from an episode of Joe Lamp’ l’ s TV show, Growing a Greener World. Both ideas have resonated with our visitors.
Above: Fairfield( Connecticut) County Master Gardener volunteer clear the way for a 3-sisters planting of corn, squash and beans. Below right: Fairfield( Connecticut) County Master Gardener volunteers plant potatoes in the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden.
Everything that is grown in the garden has a purpose. We intersperse alyssum as a border plant to attract syrphid flies, also known as hoverflies, which are voracious aphid eaters. All our flowers are carefully chosen for their pollinating power or the beneficial insects they attract. Peonies, which border the garden, entice Typhia wasps that feed on Japanese beetle larvae. All of these elements make for rich discussions with the public.
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