When I started trying to grow things in a community garden, I had no idea how hard it is to sustain life. If I had to live off my 4-foot-by-8-foot plot, I would starve to death.
Yet, the rewards of friendly competition, the joys that come with teaching my grandchildren about gardening and savoring off-the-vine produce keep me coming back year after year.
I first joined the Johns Creek Community Garden at Newtown Park five years ago, and with great optimism and determination, I dug in.
Since then, I have enjoyed the rewards of pop-in-your-mouth tomatoes and weathered the disappointment of withering crops. At times, I have been proud of how my plants thrived. There were other times when I ripped out everything and started over.
The balance of sun and rain can make or break a summer season, and gardening, I’ve learned, is an art and a science with a healthy dose of nature sprinkled on top.
Our garden has 52 plots, with each gardener contributing to the community spirit. We share produce. We water for each other when someone is on vacation. Last year, when I broke my shoulder, fellow gardeners put down mulch in the aisle around my plot to reduce weeds.
Friendships have formed and friendly competitions have thrived – all thanks to our community garden.
I have a friend whose garden looks beautiful year after year. Many times, I had asked him about the products he used, how often he watered and what he did to trim and weed.
It took him two years to reveal his secret ingredient: worm castings that he purchases from an obscure farm in North Georgia and adds to the soil. It must be the miracle elixir because everything he plants is plump, shiny and tasty.
While I was green with envy, his tomatoes were the most vibrant red.
The good news is our friendship grew, and he started bringing some of the worm castings back for me.
That’s just one of the many benefits of a community garden – forming a bond with your neighbors.
Here in Georgia, we’re lucky to have several growing seasons. Summer is perfect for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper and eggplant, while lettuce, arugula, kale and swiss chard flourish in the fall and spring.
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot.
One year I planted corn. It smelled so good in the warm sunshine that I ate an ear raw, right after picking. It was truly the sweetest thing I ever tasted. However, I didn’t realize that corn only produces one ear per stalk, and thus dedicating the space for five corn stalks in a small garden infringed on my other crops.
Today, I buy my corn at farmers markets.
I have also learned that gardening is a wonderful thing to teach young children. My grandson loves to dig in the dirt and pick weeds. Although he doesn’t usually like vegetables, he ate half a small swiss chard plant because he thought it was fun to pick and eat. He’s only 3 years old, but he’s learning that food doesn’t grow on a grocery store shelf and fresh is best.
As for our community garden, members join the Johns Creek Garden Association and lease a plot to help defray costs of land, water, soil and repairs. The fenced-in area protects our crops from most animals, such as deer, but birds and chipmunks pick at berries if they are not properly netted.
We have had visitors who think the vegetables are for picking before the gardener has a chance to harvest. One woman came quite often and not only picked vegetables but started moving plants from one garden to another. We had to keep the garden closed after that.
Still, this land does provide an opportunity for those who don’t have space or sunshine where they live to enjoy the many benefits of gardening. The garden association also donates some plots to the community.
We’ve designated some lots to be used by members of the nearby senior center, and plots have been given to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to learn more about gardening and earn merit badges.
While this February has doused the Atlanta area with rain, a glimmer of March sunshine makes me anxious to start a new season. While the goal may be producing edible food, the benefits extend far beyond that.
After all, one of the sweetest things to grow in our community garden are the friendships and learnings we all share. And like the tomato vines we grow, our lives are intertwined, and each of us is better for it.
HELP US COVER YOUR COMMUNITY
This story was written by Mary Rittle, a community contributor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Rittle recently retired from a career in marketing and public relations. She has three grown sons and keeps busy with her three grandchildren, pickleball, swimming, a community garden, singing in a choir and volunteering. In 2019, she published a children’s book, “Sparkler the 10th Reindeer.”
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