By John Burton
LITTLE SILVER – There may not be much gardening going on as the mercury now dips and the days get shorter, but next spring be prepared to pick a plot in the newly established community garden.
“We can’t wait to get started,” said Bonnie Akey, chair of the borough environmental commission, who is already planning for the next planting season as she and commission members get ready to oversee the running of the community garden.
The garden will be an approximately 300-by-100-foot area in Sickles Park, located next to Sickles Market, Harrison Avenue, and will have 40 plots, 4-by-30-feet, available for borough residents and nonresidents, if plots are still available, according to Akey.
The planting season will begin May 1 and will last through Nov. 15 for fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. The garden was established by an ordinance, adopted by the borough council on Monday, Nov. 17.
The cost of plots will be $50 a season for residents and $75 for nonresidents, with plots being awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
According to Akey, discussions had been ongoing for a few years with the hope of determining an appropriate spot, hammering out the details with local officials and getting guidance from members of the Master Gardeners program at Rutgers University.
The overall costs for establishing the garden will be covered by state Open Space grant money that the borough has been keeping in reserve, Akey said.
The biggest expense will be for the fence needed to protect the site. The environmental commission wanted what Akey described as a “state of the art fence” that will keep destructive animals at bay. As a model, she said, the commission used the one at the Shrewsbury community garden.
A fence like that will cost roughly $34,000, she said.
The Parker Homestead trustees have offered to help with expenses, if there is a financial shortfall, Akey said.
The rules for participating in the garden prohibit the use of the use of nonorganic pesticides and fertilizers and no pets or smoking will be permitted on the site.
The commission is looking for any Boy Scouts or others who might want to undertake a community service project by constructing four elevated handicap accessible plots, Akey said.
Akey is a passionate gardener, who has in past years used a plot at Fair Haven’s garden. She is happy that the borough will have its own site next year.
“It really gives roots to the family,” she noted – pun intended – by giving families a place to spend time together outdoors, in a healthy environment.
“It gives children the opportunity to see how food grows,” she said.
