The Williamstown Organic Community Garden will open for it’s second season on Earth Day, April 22.
By Krista Cerminaro
The Williamstown Organic Community Garden is a prime example of the township’s mantra: “Come Grow with Us.”
Located just behind the library, a rustic wooden painted sign, a shed full of tools and rows of garden plots will soon be filled with gardeners planting away, children laughing and playing in the sunshine.
“It’s not just a community garden,” volunteer Mary Ellen Muth said. “You have a sense of community with it.”
The garden will open for its second season on Earth Day, April 22, at 10 a.m., and Muth, along with garden coordinator Patrick McDevitt, both of Sustainable Monroe Township, invite all community members to attend Opening Day to see what the garden’s all about and make this season another successful one.
McDevitt said anyone — experienced or not — can attend and sign up for a plot.
“Different people that have been here have said, ‘I met people at the garden that I never knew lived in Williamstown, and I’ve been here my whole life,’” McDevitt added. “Some people work all day, and some are retired — whatever works for people. We had a lot of people bring their kids, we have our swing over there, and the kids love running around, no phone in sight. It was awesome.”
“The overall consensus for the first year was, we joke about how we had pretty low expectations, and they quite exceeded,” Muth said.
Events throughout the season also attract residents and out-of-towners to the space.
“We had monthly events — cooking demos, we had yoga in the garden one day, music events, and people came,” McDevitt said. “We had people coming from Lumberton, because they saw it on Facebook — didn’t know us, just wanted to come. It worked out great.”
A plot costs $25 for the season, which McDevitt said goes toward common area maintenance and tools. From April to November, dusk to dawn, gardeners can come and go as they please, and plant virtually anything they desire.
“You can plant anything you want in your bed — legally,” McDevitt joked. “People did all the usual — tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, strawberries, we had actually sorghum growing — it’s like an ancient grain, it looks like corn, kind of. We did have some corn, sweet potatoes.”
Additionally, events are open to everyone, including those who aren’t signed up for a plot.
The role of the garden, according to Muth, is to not only foster connections within the community — but also connections with the great outdoors.
“It’s peaceful, it’s a connection with the outdoors and it’s a sense of satisfaction. I can’t say this enough,” Muth said. “If you plant something or grow it from seed, to have the fruits — literally — of your labor. That’s so much nicer than something shrink-wrapped, chopped, sliced and diced for you.”
Last year, 18 people signed up for a plot, and this year, the garden will expand to 37 plots.
“I always thought of community gardens as something more for urban areas, and not so much in rural areas, but actually, a lot of the towns now, even in Woolwich and Washington Township, which are pretty spread out, suburban towns, also have community gardens,” Muth said.
McDevitt added Williamstown has a lot of apartment complexes that don’t offer much gardening space, so it provides a gardening opportunity for those residents as well.
“We’re trying to really have a diverse bunch of people coming out to the garden,” McDevitt said. “We’re in touch with the different community gardens, so we’re communicating with them — they come to our events, we go to their events.”
Last summer, Muth said gardeners also coordinated a trip to three other local community gardens — in Hammonton, Gibbsboro and Woodbury — to learn from each other.
McDevitt attributed the success of the garden to the overall support of the community. According to McDevitt, the mayor and his wife have their own plot, the MUA supplied water for the garden, and the partnership with the library has been ideal.
McDevitt and Muth hope to expand the garden in the future, by incorporating old events and adding new ones, doing more permanent hardscaping, adding a walkway, sitting areas, fencing and more overall texture.
“I’d like to build a labyrinth out there,” McDevitt said. “It’s like a meditative walking path, and anyone could come and walk it.”
Sustainable Monroe Township, according to McDevitt, aims to use public outreach to educate the community and help residents better understand how they can help make the world a better place. Some of the group’s other events include an annual Green Fair, shredding event and farmers market.
“We’ll be at the Arts Festival with our table, we’ll be at the Music Festival. We try to participate in all the town events and just get people involved and interested.”
The group meets on the third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., on the second floor of the municipal building. Meetings are open all Monroe Township residents.
