By Sydney Jarrard
Staff Columnist
ROLLINSFORD—
The Rollinsford Garden and Local Sustainability Club (RGLSC) is reaching out to the seacoast community to help families and friends come together over good, clean and fresh garden food. It may not sound easy for the many of us who lack a garden space and whose produce is limited to what we find in the grocery store, but it’s now possible to pick fresh veggies from the garden in the morning and have them on the table for dinner.
While owning a nice plot of land on the Seacoast isn’t a realistic goal for all of us, the RGLSC is making home gardening easy for community members. The Club’s large garden space, located on Foundry Street in Rollinsford, is in its third year of providing raised garden beds, outfitted with soil and organic compost, for residents, for only $25 for the entire growing season. Members have the opportunity to grow all kinds of produce—from lettuce to tomatoes to peppers—while meeting neighbors, learning about sustainability and improving those green thumbs.
The inception of the community garden began in 2008, when a group of friends came up with an idea that would allow them to grow fresh produce all summer, even though they didn’t have the space to build their own gardens. Some may say it was Michele Small who had the first inspiration, but it was a team effort among Patrick Gale, Jameson Small, Jaclyn Giordano, Jenny Connerty, Matt Anderson and Roy Small, that got the plan moving. They began working with the town of Rollinsford to see what small land areas might be available for purchase, and they were lucky enough to find a beautiful 14-acre space to use on the Salmon Falls River. What they didn’t know was that the land ran deep with clay, and a garden wasn’t possible to build. In order to use the land, they would have to construct the garden differently—they had to build the garden upwards, on raised pallets. By 2009, the garden had 23 raised beds that the friends made available to the public, and has grown to 28 with plans for family-sized beds in the near future.
It’s not without the public’s help that this garden project has grown to its current size. “Facebook has become a large part of the way we communicate with the fans of the RGLSC and our gardeners,” says Jeanette Gagne, secretary for the RGLSC board. “We share photos of the gardens, upcoming events and see what other people are interested in.” They also share with community members to remind them of Club meetings, which take place twice a month at the Rollinsford Public Library. With the 2012 goal of increasing membership and generating community awareness, the garden actively recruits people who want to get involved by donating time or resources, be it teaching the group a craft, sharing garden secrets or helping keep the space green.
The community has been very responsive, with many of the beds already rented—and one even being rented and then donated back. Captain Tim Pinkham and June Whittier Pinkham of Rollinsford donated a raised bed for the 2012 growing season for the members of the Rollinsford Community Garden to share as an herb garden. Whittier Pinkham explains, "Community gardening—what’s not to love? It is good exercise, produces nutritional, delicious food, brings people together and it’s good for the environment. We should all know where our food comes from.”
The RGLSC has also thrown some great events for the community’s participation in the past, from Rollinsford’s Got Talent in the summer to the Haunted Gardens in the fall. “Hay Down, Hoe Down in August is the most fun,” says Gagne. “The food is all organic, healthy and delicious! The bands are great and we host some of the very best vendors around. The garden is at its most beautiful and people stroll throughout with their fresh corn on the cob, while the children laugh and play, the live music is on stage and people hula-hoop in the green grass. It’s an event enjoyed by all.”
It may only be the start of spring, but the garden already has a plan for April with the second annual Duck Race on Sunday, April 29, where people from all over the area meet up at the falls behind the Rollinsford Mill Building to watch 100 yellow rubber ducks race down the falls to the finish line. The race is followed up by an egg hunt and bunny-petting at the garden site.
New plans for the garden are in the works every week, with the help of the local community and an exciting summer right around the corner. In just three years, the garden’s success has exceeded all expectations, but Gagne and the garden team are eager to continue growing and educating the community. Says Gagne, “Our goal for the garden is that the community may continue to have a place to garden together on this beautiful site.”
