TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

Sowing The Seeds Of An Idea In A Community Garden

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST

Children prepare a section of soil on a section of the new community garden in New Port Richey. Originally a project for home-schoolers, everyone is now welcome to join in working on the mini farm located near Peace Hall.

ADVERTISEMENT

By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: March 4, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - It doesn't look like much yet, but there's something growing out in front of Peace Hall, on an irregular shaped patch of ground defined by a rail fence.

Inside the fenced-in area, hand-painted signs identify the sprigs already emerging from the ground in places and proclaim what the still-bare patches of dirt will soon yield. If all goes as planned, nearly two-dozen varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs will soon grow in the tight little space across the street from Sims Park.

Those involved hope they are sowing the seed of an idea that will spread throughout the city.

Another, larger, hand-painted sign welcomes one and all to the New Port Richey Community Garden. At some point every weekend - and now and then during the week - passersby or visitors to the park may notice adults and children working away in the garden. With the wooden Peace Hall, once the sanctuary of West Pasco's first Roman Catholic parish, less than a stone's throw away, it kind of looks like they're doing some sort of historic re-enactment, using hand tools, developing a compost pile off in one corner, bamboo braces waiting for crops to be tall enough to need them.

The curious are always welcome to stop by, encouraged in fact, said Valerie Drake-Altman, one of the founders of the New Port Richey Community Garden.

"The idea here is anybody at any time can come by and chitchat, because it's social," Drake-Altman said. "Anybody can come by and offer us advice.

"This is about growing things together. It's just a really simple idea: bring people together, learn about foods, and learn about where our food comes from. If you open up a space to anyone in the community it's a way of bringing forth different types of people and learning together."

The garden started late last spring as an idea for a summer project for several home-schooled children. Drake-Altman went to the city's parks and recreation director, Elaine Smith, and asked for a piece of land for a community garden.

The city quickly obliged, and the learning opportunity quickly took off as the students and their families spent months preparing the soil before winter.

They resumed working on the garden on Jan. 30. At present, there are six core families that have a "share" in the project. Other families, however, can join for $30 worth of materials and 10 hours of sweat equity.

The material contributions can come in many forms, said Suanne Gould, another member of the group. It isn't that they are trying to make the farm "organic," Gould explained; that definition takes several years to attain. More accurately, they are trying to find natural, low-cost methods, improvising with what's readily available.

"We're trying to avoid commercial fertilizer," Gould said. "We put night crawlers in the other night to try to improve the soil."

They have been using plants that either draw bees to help pollination or are natural deterrents to destructive insects. Friends are saving up old tea and coffee grounds. They even plan on trying to lay claim to the horse manure left in the street during the Chasco parade.

Obviously, Drake-Altman said, this little farm couldn't sustain six families' vegetable needs; one family maybe. But it isn't about how many bushels are harvested. The community garden is as much about community as it is garden, she said.

"It's a pilot project, and it would be nice if we in fact discover that there's a lot of interest," Drake-Altman said.

If so, this garden could be the start of a citywide community gardening program, on larger tracts of land that really could supply a good portion of the produce for a significant number of residents.

For more information on the New Port Richey Community Garden visit http://nprcommunitygarden.org.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT