Green Cmte. plans community garden on town-owned land on 11th St.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
GREEN, from Page 1
ergy into building a community
garden, which will be located on
11th Street, across from the New
Jersey transit Station.
“it is really exciting because
there are a lot of people that have
stepped up and expressed an interest, and it is really great to meet
these new people. a number of
these people are relatively new to
Hammonton, and so it is a great
opportunity for people to get to
know each other and it is a garden,
which they love,” Menzel said.
Menzel stated she recently met
with
Hammonton
Public
Works/Business administrator
Jerome Barberio at the garden located on 11th and Washington
Streets to discuss plans.
“it is a big town-owned lot there
and we have already had 15 people that said they want to have a
garden bed there. there is plenty
room to expand it, and we are
planning so that we can offer
space to hopefully as many people
that express an interest,” Menzel
said.
On Saturday, May 16, Menzel
said the plan is to have interested
gardeners at the site to begin
planting fruits and vegetables.
there are applications on the
committee’s website hammontongreencommittee.com to request
space at the garden site. residents
can rent 12-foot-by-four-foot
plots for the season for $20 a plot.
the Hammonton Community
Garden started as an idea a few
years ago, and progressed as interest grew and a grant opportunity came along.
“We applied for a grant last
year and didn’t get it, but we have
been thinking [about] it and had a
sign-up sheet throughout the community to ask if people would be
interested in a community garden,
just to see if there is interest in the
community and we always got favorable responses when talking to
people about. We just decided it
was time to do it. atlantiCare has
grants available for people starting community and school gardens, so we were able to take
advantage of that. it is certainly a
rich history of farming in Ham-
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monton, but there are a lot of people that live in apartments or have
smaller backyards and don’t have
the space to garden at their home,”
Menzel said.
the Hammonton Green Committee is looking forward to working with the association of New
Jersey environmental Commissions (aNJeC), the Pinelands
Preservation alliance (PPa),
along with the Hammonton environmental Commission on the
events planned to focus on water
issues and conservation.
“there are a couple of workshops that are planned for May.
there is going to be a rain barrel
workshop on May 3 and native
plants/water conservation on May
11. aNJeC and the PPa have a
grant to work with Hammonton
on the water conservation initiative. the Green Committee will
have a chance to partner with the
other organizations in the community to do this,” Menzel said.
Normally on the fourth thursday of the month, members of the
committee and friends have an opportunity to go to area pubs to participate in “green drinks.” On
april 23, the group will be heading to Buena ale House in Buena
and on May 28 it will be held at
fred and ethel’s in Smithville.
“it is a good chance for us to
meet with and informally talk
with people from other communi-
ties to find out what they are
doing, what there ‘green team’ is
doing, other green initiatives they
are working on and see how we
can all work together. there is a
lot to do and [it] is always great to
work together and discover some
ideas others have about green initiatives,” Menzel said.
On thursday, april 16, Menzel
stated the committee will be participating in the downtown third
thursday activities. they will be
at Stockton University’s Kramer
Hall with the master gardeners.
april’s third thursday is a garden
party theme.
though the eighth annual
Green Day festival is five months
away, Menzel said the committee
will begin to plan for that soon. it
will be on Sunday, September 20
this year as part of the town’s
Green Weekend from noon to 4
p.m. at the St. Joseph High School
grounds on Vine Street.
“there is a lot that goes into
planning for that. this year we are
going to go back to a green weekend. it is good to spread it out, and
for us i know it was more challenging because there are downtown merchants with their sales
going on and flea market day and
they wouldn’t be available for the
festival. it is good we are doing it
on Sunday. that works for us,”
Menzel said.
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