Harvest season seems long gone now that snow is falling and staying on the ground, but it will take the Barrhead Community Garden Association a little more than winter weather to forget the people who made their important community project a success this spring, summer and fall.
The association held an appreciation dinner at the Seniors Drop In Centre last week for all the individuals who contributed to the garden, which totaled over 50 plots by the time everyone registered.
The crowd was treated to a delicious meal, some of which was harvested directly from the garden. Barrhead county agricultural fieldman Marilyn Flock and community and development coordinator with Barrhead FCSS Ros Rudd took the crowd through the process of getting the garden started, and what it took to make the year a success.
Shopping local is a campaign Barrhead is familiar with, especially around the holiday season. The appreciation dinner explained why this mindset should also apply to the food we put on our table: growing and purchasing local foods.
The garden offered members of the community the opportunity to experience a small part of self sustainability.
Plot owners and volunteers met each week to tend to the garden, where they shared ideas and advice, and explored what it meant to create locally grown produce.
It doesn’t get any fresher than harvesting vegetables from a garden in the morning, and preparing that produce for dinner that evening.
Like any new idea though, the project faced challenges and bumps along that road to success.
Rudd and Flock also talked of the trials and tribulations the gardeners encountered during their journey through the first year. The main issue was flooding in some of the plots, which cause a few gardeners to lose what they planted.
This didn’t stop them from contributing to the garden however. Though they didn’t have a garden of their own, they had no problem helping out others. In turn, they received produce from other plots, bringing out the true meaning of a community garden.
The garden was a learning experience not only for people who had never gardened, but for the association. This was a year of figuring out what would work, and what wouldn’t. With every problem that came in 2013, the gardeners vowed to improve the project for next season.
With the majority of plot owners wanting to come back for another season, and additional groups showing interest as well, Barrhead’s 2014 community garden is bound to be bigger and better.
With year one under their belts, the team of gardeners will have visions of fresh produce dancing in their heads until springtime arrives. Then, the community garden will be brought to life once again.
