Two years ago, when members of St. John’s Episcopal Church created its Spring Street Community Garden Project, organizers had no idea how popular the 10 plots of soil would be.
“We wanted to start out small because we really weren’t sure if it would be accepted,” said Kathy Slavin, church member and community garden committee member. “And we are just so excited with the interest that has helped the project grow.”
This year, the group has 30 gardens to rent out to the community for $10 each. That’s triple the number of gardens offered in 2015, the project’s first year. The gardens are located behind the church on Spring Street.
“We are surprised at the popularity and have only nine plots left to sell,” Slavin said.
Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Wythe-Bland Foundation, the garden project committee added 15 plots this year, built a 1,000 gallon water tank and put up a storage shed for gardening tools. Carter Bland and Trust is supplying the water.
The community garden makes gardening easy and convenient for people with no land on which to sow a garden or those new to gardening: there is water, gardening tools and books about gardening on site.
In addition, the group is offering classes with master gardeners at 10 a.m. on April 22 and May 6 at St. John’s. The first class will cover week-to-week care of the…
