Let the season begin!
he garden has a fun new project we are working on: creating a recipe book to provide to the agencies that we donate our produce to!
We hope to create a comprehensive book full of nutritious and affordable recipes that use produce from the garden, as well as readily available items found in food pantries.
We are currently accepting recipes from our gardeners and other community members who wish to contribute. Please send us any recipes to s0930498@monmouth.edu
We really appreciate your help!
Here is a list of items commonly found in food pantries:
Meats
Vegetables
Fruit & Juice
Nuts
Dairy
Miscellaneous Items
Cereals/Grains
Baby Food
Breads
Seasonal/ Holiday Items
About Kula Cafe & Garden:
Located in Asbury Park, Kula Cafe began as an initiative to decrease the unemployment rate in the community. They do this by providing training to unemployed individuals, while also offering pay. Their garden and greenhouse are located on the same property, and provide food to the cafe and neighboring restaurants. The garden is extremely beneficial to the community, because it offers produce to the public and to businesses, brings the neighborhood together, localizes where their food comes from, and brightens the community with the beautiful plants. This is their first growing season.
Goals:
The garden has three main goals; to run a viable business, to create jobs, and to provide food to the community. They also hope to localize the food industry within the community. They hope to engage the community, and are especially involved with schools in the area. They are aiming for a farm-to-school program, and an educational after school group.
Organization:
The garden has 2 managers, occasional volunteers, and season employment opportunities. On Saturdays, the produce that is grown in a certain section of the garden is given away to the public. Their greenhouse is entirely hydroponic and is resistant to hurricane winds.
Funding:
Kula Cafe’s Garden is a project of Interfaith Neighbors, and is funded entirely by grants. Interfaith has been involved in Asbury for nearly 25 years, with projects such as affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization.
Harvest:
Hydroponic systems work best with high-turnover crops that grow rapidly. They focus on growing leafy greens such as micro-greens, salad mixes, mustard greens, arugula, etc.
About:
This garden was established in April of 2016, and is sponsored by the Freehold Township Heritage Society. It is located within a residential development, and is associated with the historical Oakley Farmhouse. This is an organic and OMRI pesticide garden.
Organization:
There are currently 46 gardeners in the plots, which are available as follows:
4×20 plot for $35, 40 available
4×10 plot for $20, 20 available
There are 6 raised 4×10 plots for individuals with disabilities.
The master gardeners have scheduled days that they are available in the garden for assistance, on either Thursdays or Saturday mornings. They find this schedule works well for beginning gardeners who are still learning, and know when to find help.
There are two community plots in the garden in which the produce is donated to Open Door in Freehold. The Heritage Society also has a plot to grow produce for a farm stand, where they take donations for the produce that is grown. The donations are then given back to the Heritage Society.
Important news and gardening tips, and Rutgers fact sheets, are shared via email.
Funding:
Freehold township has paid for their fencing, benches, wood for the raised beds, and the water.
The garden also holds a deposit for individuals, which stands as a promise that they will volunteer their time to general garden maintenance. This deposit rolls over to the following growing season if your contribute to the four work days, otherwise the garden keeps the deposit for maintenance.
The garden requires that members bring their own tools.
Harvest:
One of the garden coordinators, Ms. Beuka, stated that nearly 300 pounds of produce has been donated so far. Their season will end on October 30th, and gardeners must remove all traces of their garden. They will reopen on March 26th.
Decision Making:
There are two garden coordinators and multiple master gardeners who generally make decisions together. The garden members have worked together too coordinate events such as a potluck, and they are very involved. They hope to establish a committee next year, when they begin composting.
Rules:
The rules for the garden are similar to most other community gardens, with a five foot limit for produce and a rule that you must be at least eighteen years old.
Demographics:
Majority of the members live within walking distance from the garden, or a development over. There are a few members from neighboring towns as well. They have many teachers and a few high school students who volunteer. The rest of the demographics such as age, gender, and ethnicity vary as well.
There is also a doctor who has bees on Oakley Farmhouse property nearby, who provides pollinators and has a connection with the garden.
About Freehold Community Garden:
This garden has been around for 9 years, and was one of the first community gardens in Monmouth County. They have served as a model for many of the surrounding gardens in the area. It is a completely organic farm.
Organization:
Freehold Community Garden has both individual and community plots. The produce from the community plots is shared among the individual plot holders. They find this works best because they have many beginner gardeners who are unable to rely on just their own crops. Individual plots are rented for $25 for 100 square feet. They also have teaching and PAR plots, as well as a community area open to the public outside of their fenced area. There are only native pollinating plants outside the garden.
Funding:
Their garden’s funding comes solely from application fees. The township provides their water and woodchips, and they have received a few donations of plants and seeds. They do not have enough funding to provide equipment for volunteers, so you must come prepared. They have received a grant to install a partial watering system, and they are hoping to complete it next season. They also put in raised beds last year for individuals with disabilities, which were donated from a Girl Scout troop.
Harvest:
Their season runs from March 15th- November 1st. The community plots are in the shade, so there are mostly rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries, mint, garlic chive, and onion chive plants there. The garden does not keep a harvest record, so the amounts and types of crops in the personal plots are unknown.
Decision Making:
The garden has a democratic style of governing, and has no committee or group in power. They have 3 mandatory work days per season and other optional work days. There is a bulletin with fliers to notify volunteers of upcoming events.
Rules and Guidelines:
The Freehold Borough website contains a list of rules and guidelines, similar to ours.
Demographics:
I was told they have a wide range of ages from 18 to 80 volunteering in their garden. Some are from the area while others travel a little farther. The genders and ethnicities vary as well.
Big businesses often don’t pay attention to the future and what their practices are doing in the long run. When you plant your own produce in a community garden, you can personally practice sustainability and be certain that you are not doing our planet any harm. This includes practices such as water conservation, minimizing waste, and compost usage. Reducing the amount of resources used and recycling product that most companies would waste ensures you are making the most of every single resource. Sustainable gardening/farming can potentially help with large scale problems such as world hunger and malnourishment from lack of access to healthy foods.
There are countless benefits that come from gardening and being engaged in your community, but physical and mental health sit at the very top.
Gardening can improve access to nutritious food, improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and increase outdoor exposure. Many individuals also feel improved mental health, reduced stress, and a feeling of belonging from community garden involvement.
Community gardening can increase safety in a community by fostering connections between community members. It can also offer skill training that can assist in future job opportunities.
Involvement in a community garden can help preserve culture. Cultural foods not typically grown in the US can be overpriced and not fresh. Growing your own in a community garden can be a cost effective way of preserving cultural practices. It can also help educate community members of other cultures’ practices, and increase acceptance of diversity.
About Marlboro Community Garden:
This garden is sponsored by the Shade Tree Commission of Marlboro, and was established in April of 2016. This is a non-organic, but IPM garden, and they do their own composting.
Organization:
This is by far the largest garden I have visited so far, with space for 100 beds. As of this year, only 48 have been installed, but since the community members have been so engaged, it will be expanding for the next growing season. All of the beds are raised, and they charge the following per plot:
$40 for 4×10 $30 for 65+
$70 for 4×20 $60 for 65+
There are also 4 higher raised beds for individuals with disabilities, as well as a parking space and easy access to the beds for those individuals.
There are also food bank plots, in which the produce is donated to local individuals in need of food. The community members are expected to volunteer at least two hours of their time to general garden maintenance, including tending to these plots.
The garden coordinator, Ms. Simonetti, is very organized and keeps track of which individuals have volunteered community time and those who have not. She keeps a set of stickers in her binder with each plot number, and sticks them on their bed when they have completed their hours. They also are able to communicate with her through email with any concerns or questions they may have.
The garden also has a “pick 10” rule, which means that when you are in the garden, you must pull at least ten weeds. This has worked remarkably well for them, as there was not a single weed in sight.
Funding:
The township funds all building within the garden. The Open Space Fund states that any trees that are cut down within Marlboro must be replaced, and if you refuse to do so, you will be fined. This money goes directly to the Shade Tree Commission, which is the commission that established the garden.
Local boy scouts also donated picnic benches to the garden.
Harvest:
The garden does not have a set growing season. Gardeners are encouraged to plant year-round. There are a wide variety of plants grown in their garden, including peppers, tomatoes, okra, bok choy, soybeans, mint, lavender, and eggplant.
Rules and Guidelines:
The garden loosely based their “rules”, which they see more as suggestions, from the Shrewsbury Garden. Ms. Simonetti, the garden coordinator, allows the gardeners to do as they please, as long as they are not impeding on other gardeners’ experiences.
Demographics:
The demographics of the gardeners vary greatly. There are families, individuals, elderly, children, men, and women. There are immigrants from all over the world who grow ethnic foods in their plots, including families from Russia, Asia, and Italy. Community members are very engaged with this garden, and they receive many volunteers from schools in the area. The High School Environmental Club even has a plot within the garden. They also have a “buddy system”, where they take care of each other’s gardens when the individual is temporarily away from the garden.
Mark your calendars! This summer we will be hosting our first ever Community Garden Conference!
Monmouth University Community Garden began in 2009 and has joined a growing number of community gardens all around the country that help provide sustainability to communities in numerous aspects. This regional conference will focus on 4 theme areas of importance to community gardens:
Following is a schedule of registration fees for this conference:
Registration Fees include the following:
$250: Fee includes registration for the entire conference, meals (breakfast for 3 days, lunch for 2 days, and dinner for 2 days), and housing for 3 nights in on-campus dormitories. Please note: Registrants must supply their own linens.
$50: Fee is for daily conference registration that includes meals for each selected day. Housing is not included.
Additional information regarding conference schedule and registration will be forthcoming. Please send your conference inquiries to gardening@monmouth.edu.
Keynote speakers for the conference include:
Well, the ground has thawed, the snow is gone and the flowers have begun blooming. Everything around us tells us…It’s garden time! Many folks have already signed up for another bountiful year of community gardening.
As we did in the past, we will open the garden in tandem with earth “week.” The garden will officially open Saturday, April 25th. Bring your tools, bring your seeds and let’s get our hands dirty!
Happy Garden Season Everyone!
