FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Community Garden at O.B. Nelson Park is taking shape as volunteers spread mulch in the garden’s 40 raised beds on Saturday, March 16.

The community garden is just a few weeks away from officially opening, and project leader Barbara Rainbow is hoping to get more people to sign up for a plot in the garden’s inaugural season. Last fall, a group of volunteers gathered at the site to install a fence, and since then, raised garden beds were added.

The garden is located on a flat and sunny patch of grass east of the ball diamonds where the old pool once stood until it was torn down more than a decade ago. The city of Fairfield donated the use of the land to the community garden, and just installed a hydrant so the garden’s patrons can water their plants.

Each of the garden’s 40 raised beds are four feet wide and 16 feet long. Rainbow said they’re stocked with high-quality, fertile soil, and surrounded by wood mulch supplied by the city.

Fairfield Rotary has raised funds to construct a tool shed within the garden, which the club plans to build in late March. The garden’s members will have access to the shed’s tool library, courtesy of the Fairfield Garden Initiative. The Fairfield Garden Initiative was funded by a grant that provided help to 150 low- and moderate-income home gardeners. Fairfield Sustainability Coordinator Faith Reeves said that, even though the grant for that program lasted just over a year and has now run out, tools purchased with the grant are going to the community garden.

“We’ll also hold educational events here at the community garden,” Reeves said. “A lot of the efforts that we were broadcasting out into the community, we’ll centralize here at the community garden.”

Rainbow and Reeves said they hope to continue the Fairfield Garden Initiative’s outreach to low- and moderate-income gardeners by inviting businesses to sponsor plots for them in the community garden. They said 10 plots are being set aside for these sponsors.

Fairfield Interact, Rotary’s youth division, raised money to purchase native shrubs from Andrew Nash of Sweet Green Arbor Services, which they will plant later this month.

Eight beds have been reserved to grow perennial vegetables and fruits - such as asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries and herbs - which would be available to all the community garden’s members. Reeves said the edible perennials will be inside the fenced-in garden, while other native perennials and “beneficials” will be located outside. “Beneficials” are plants that are good for pollinators, or those that attract predator insects that eat pesky bugs.

Those who sign up for a basic $50 plot at the garden are asked to grow only annual plants, since the contract lasts just one year, but members will also have access to those perennial edible plants. Reeves envisions the perennial edibles will include longer-season plants such as potatoes, garlic and onions.

“We might have a bed that is committed to just butternut squash,” Reeves said.

Members receive use of the garden tools, water, two trellises, and an untreated bale of straw for mulching.

“That will help us keep everything looking nice and uniform,” Reeves said. “The goal is to have a very nicely managed space that is attractive and easy to transition season-to-season.”

Members are responsible for doing their own weeding and watering. Rainbow said she’ll educate members about how to grow plants sustainably, which means learning how to conserve water and how to keep weeds and insects at bay without resorting to herbicides or pesticides. To help keep the weeds down, volunteers laid road cloth throughout the garden.

“We have a lot of really knowledgeable master gardeners, people like Faith, who know about soil and who can educate others on how they can have a really productive garden without depending on that kind of chemicals,” Rainbow said. “For instance, growing perennial herbs in the garden is a deterrent to insects.”

The community garden will host a free “Get Growing” workshop in early April, which will coincide with the official opening of the garden. It will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions of the organizers and learn how to get started on their plot.

“We got six people to sign up, and we haven’t even told anybody yet,” Rainbow said. “There are so many people who are helping to make it happen.”

Those who wish to sign up for a plot or learn more about the Fairfield Community Garden can visit the group’s website at fairfield-community-garden.org, or email fairfieldiowacommunitygarden@gmail.com. You can also follow the group’s Facebook page listed under Fairfield Iowa Community Garden.