The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Community garden goal is to double donation
Oberlin neighbors gathered to turn the soil and plant seedlings at a Legion Field Garden.
Oberlin neighbors gathered to turn the soil and plant seedlings at a Legion Field Garden May 20 at South Professor and Hamilton streets.
At the community garden operated by Zion Community Development Corporation, relationships among gardeners are as important as raising vegetables to feed the hungry.
“That was the mission of the garden,” said Oberlin resident Steve Crowley. “To make a place where people can meet others and feel comfortable doing it. If you can grow vegetables, you can be more resourceful in terms of feeding yourself. We have lots of residents who struggle to get enough food to put on the table. They depend on Oberlin Community Services.”
Carol Spiros, program coordinator at Zion CDC, 81 Locust St., Oberlin, said for the last two years the garden included work study students in sustainable agriculture from Lorain County Community College in Elyria.
Those involved in the Legion Field Garden hope to double the amount of produce donated to Oberlin Community Services from 700 pounds the last several years to 1,400 pounds, Spiros said.
The donations are the result of collaborations between volunteers and various groups such as Oberlin College students and church groups, Spiros said.
“They will all help produce not only their own food in their own boxes, but with growing the community food,” Spiros said.
David Sonner, interim director of Zion CDC, smiled as he thought of the possibilities at the garden.
“This is a long-running dream,” Sonner said. “I was enthused about this when it first began, and that was before I was connected with Zion CDC. My enthusiasm arose from my goal of Oberlin’s becoming a sustainable community.”
Sustainability takes many forms, Sonner said.
“One of the central necessities for sustainability is the local food security,” Sonner said. “I think the case has already been made many times there is a better chance of social and economic equity if people produce a greater portion of their food needs locally. In addition to the fun of a community garden, and what we are mindful of, is the aesthetics. We want to make this thing beautiful. You’re supposed to marry that with the loftier purpose of local food production.”
Fruit trees planted in the last couple of years are beginning to set fruit, Spiros said.
“It’s a visual fence,” Spiros said. “We want to be polite to the neighbors. This is where the garden begins.”
The original concept for the garden included an edible forest, Sonner said, so they may add to the fruit trees.
Another option is a bee and butterfly garden, he said.
“Those critters are essential to the processes of plant life,” Sonner said. “The pace is picking up. More to good effect is happening at Legion Field Garden each year. I found it encouraging. (Spiros) is responsible for a lot of that forward movement. What we’re trying to do is demonstrate the agricultural self reliance goal of the Climate Action Plan, which is what Oberlin intends to do as their part to save the planet. I’ve lived here for 50 years. I saw Oberlin as a place where things I cared about came to pass.”
The garden has grown to 27 raised beds and another section of rows with wood chips on paths, a series of compost bins and mounds of leaf mold.
Spiros says all the beds will be claimed by families and individuals. Some will learn how to garden and will start gardens on their own properties.
Educational workshops, such as one on transplanting seedlings, are ways the group reaches out to others.
“This year we’re having gardener meetings every month,” Spiros said. “Six weeks ago we had a workshop on starting seeds. Okay, what do you do next? How do you transplant them?”
Topics will follow seasonal needs, she said.
As Crowley lifted soil with a pitchfork in a raised bed he has rented for four years, he munched on a leaf of kale which over wintered there.
The little plot includes a few peas, several volunteer sunflowers, dill, and scallion-sized red onions with tall tops that Crowley says will become big and round this summer.
He originally decided to try the community garden so his son, Jabiri, now 13, could learn to grow food.
“He likes vegetables,” Crowley said. “Today he’s helping his mom by working on landscaping at home. He grew up in the garden. This is my first garden in Oberlin. Wherever we lived we had a garden. But this house is in the woods. (Jabiri) never lived anyplace else.
“I usually grow peas, potatoes, lots of things that grow on trellises so I can grow more in a small space,” Crowley said. “It’s a challenge. It’s amazing what you can do. This whole thing will be covered with peas, and peas will die back and something else is growing. I throw a couple squash in. It’s pretty easy to maintain a box like this. You can eliminate weeds and keep out the critters.”
Some of the boxes were modified with a seat so a grandmother can sit on the side rather than kneeling, he said.
“There are lots of different adaptations for the lifestyles of people,” Crowley said. “I come really early in the morning before it gets hot and sunny. A couple watering cans will take care of a bed. Because we put a lot of really good stuff in the boxes, the soil is productive. It holds a lot of water. Sylvia and Jessica (Roberts) are the managers so one of them is here every day.”
Roberts spoke about determinate and indeterminate tomato plants, and watering seedlings an hour or more before transplanting to lessen the shock to the plant.
From a third generation farm family, Roberts hopes to raise vegetables on a larger scale than a home garden, she said.