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Beds installed at PLANT Community Garden
Organizers celebrate variety of groups involved as project comes together
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WASHINGTON — A handful of high schoolers helped install garden beds at the PLANT Community Garden last week, completing a pivotal step as organizers prepare the space for eager fruit and vegetable growers in the coming weeks.
With the raised wooden beds now on the ground, organizers said they were elated to see the site finally coming together as a garden. While PLANT’s been in talks with the city over their effort for several years and added a small orchard to the property at the west end of Van Buren Street early last winter, the group’s plan to give Washingtonians a place to plant and harvest their own gardens took longer to materialize.
“It really doesn’t even feel real, it feels like we’ve imagined this day for so long,” said PLANT Board Member Kerrie Willis. “It’s overwhelming … it’s going to actually look like a community garden after today!”
Several elements of the project are still coming together. Willis hopes to have a reservation system and pricing figured out by mid-April, and said plans were still in motion for an anticipated pollinator garden along the edge of the property.
Washington High School shop class students prepared the lumber over the course of a few days, according to Industrial Tech Teacher Drew Ayrit, who coordinated the class’ efforts to assemble the beds at the garden last week.
And with a donation from the Brinton Trust to buy all needed materials, the group got to work preparing the wood ahead of its installation.
"It sounds quite simple, and it really is,“ he said. ”These were a really basic set of plans that the PLANT Board gave to me. The main thing, really, is what time of wood to use. We chose cedar wood, because it’s naturally kind of weather-resistant, and we didn’t have to put any chemicals on it.“
While the work was fairly straightforward, Ayrit added that it was a good experience for the classmates involved.
“We’re always looking for those types of things, things our students can do that will have some sort of a lasting impact,” he said. “It seemed like a good opportunity.”
Students and PLANT Board Members weren’t the only ones with a hand on the ball.
March 11 saw a smattering of volunteers at the garden not affiliated with the school or PLANT, who showed up to help. The project’s required funding from nonprofits and coordination with the city as well, which owns the lot that was once a trash dumping site.
Beyond that, Willis said PLANT relied on expertise from various locals, including the Seale family, who donated a handful of apple trees, and helped properly prune the fledgling orchard. Organizers also plan to involve food security groups to the project, in an effort to send some of the harvest to HACAP and possibly other food pantries.
The wide variety of input is no coincidence: it’s an intentional element of the community garden project, according to Willis.
“We were considering, ‘How can we involve the most people possible, who could bring value to this project?’” she said.
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
