Rising to the Occasion

Earlier this month at the Tom Settlemire Community Garden, with a lot of volunteer support, we completed five new raised garden beds! These raised beds make help gardening more accessible for folks who need an elevated plot to garden comfortably.

We were very lucky to have Mike and Molle, plotholders at TSCG, who worked as a team to cut boards and construct the frames of the raised beds. After the frames were set, an awesome group of volunteers from the local engineering firm Wright-Pierce spent a morning moving wheelbarrows full of soil into these frames. This was exhausting and monotonous work, but the group tackled it with great attitudes and a good amount of sweating. In just a few hours, the group was able to complete three of the five raised beds. Last year, some of this same group helped out in the New Mainers Garden and we hope they are planning to return again next year to tackle another project with us.

The last two raised beds were finished up with some help from a handful of garden volunteers including super-volunteers Stephen and Claudia who carted countless wheelbarrows of soil to help finish the job.

These five new raised beds are in addition to four raised beds that were built several season ago. Bill and Jen Mason have been growing in two of the raised beds for the past few seasons. This season they are already having success with their beds, including a first harvest of radishes!

We are so excited to be able to offer these raised beds to gardeners with accessibility needs next season to ensure that more folks have the opportunity to enjoy gardening at TSCG. Big thanks to all who helped make this possible!

It takes many hands to keep the Community Garden growing. Want to volunteer at the Garden with us? You can email garden@btlt.org.