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How does your garden grow at Bible Street Community Gardens?

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By Anne W. Semmes

Gardener Joel Collamer shows off one of the robust Neighbor to Neighbor plots he helped plant. Photo by Anne W. Semmes

On last Saturday’s sunny afternoon, the Bible Street Greenwich Community Gardeners in Cos Cob were doing a bit of “Scrub and Grub” of their 4 by 8-foot plots. Maria Cleary-Guida, who serves on the Bible Street Garden Steering Committee, and who has invested four years gardening her plot, says this year there are 105 active lots, up from a previous 92.

Cleary-Guida helps with the Neighborly Harvest arm of the Garden, with nearly a dozen plots producing fresh greens for Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N). “We’ve already harvested from their plots,” says Community gardener Joel Collamer. He shows off vibrant rows of Red Sail lettuce he helped plant in the N2N plots.

Liz and Russ Harden grow “Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, ” in their Bible Street Community garden plot.Photo by Anne W. Semmes

Collamer has his first-year plot that he tends three days a week, growing the arugula, spinach, and sweet peas he loves. He introduces nearby gardeners Liz and Russ Harden who are into their third- and fourth-year garden plots full of, “Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes,” says Russ Harden. The varieties include beef steak, cherry, and “yellow gold.”

“We start early and end early,” says Liz Harden, who tends her tomatoes two or three times a week. “We grow them from seed at home in the middle of March with the help of a grow light.” Others use seedling heat mats, she says. “You learn so much growing your garden here. There are some real professional gardeners here.”

This is the Bible Street Community Garden’s 12th growing year. Its 2020 Handbook is available online. (And, there are two others in town, Armstrong Court Community Garden, and the Culinary Wellness Garden at Nathaniel Witherell.)

Gardener Joel Collamer is already harvesting sweet peas from his Bible Street Community Garden plot. Photo by Anne W. Semmes

For $50 a season you get “a raised bed filled with organic soil and compost.” And note, in these tough times, “We will not turn anyone away due to financial constraints,” and “Installment payment arrangements are available.”

Free of charge is abundant bird song emanating from the surrounding woods, including that sadly decreasing Wood Thrush! For more information, check out their website at www.greenwichcommunitygardens.org

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