Squeezed between Pine Grove Cemetery, Woodbury Lane and the road leading to the town dump, the Boscawen Community Garden became suddenly active Friday afternoon.
Grabbing a rake from the back of his truck, Frank Laro showed his 21-year-old grandson Joe Brochu how to cover irrigation lines with dirt recently plowed by a team of horses. Nearby, markers lay waiting to be stuck into their final positions by several people trickling in after the workday.
The “bee hotel,” compost pile and herb garden were all ready to go.
These were the final touches for the garden plots, which officially opened Friday. The Boscawen Community Garden is one of an estimated 100 such gardens across New Hampshire, a number that continues to grow said Charlie French, a program leader with the University of New Hampshire’s Cooperative Extension.
“It’s probably come close to doubling in the last 10 years,” French said by phone Thursday. According to a map available through the UNH Cooperative Extension, several community gardens exist locally in Concord, Hopkinton, Canterbury and Franklin.
“It pretty much coincides with what we’ve seen in the local food movement,” French said. While community gardens are historically thought of as an urban feature surrounded by concrete and walls, he said, “they can be in rural communities and they can be found in small towns.”
In Boscawen, Agricultural Commission members said they began their community garden in order to give those needing help from the local food pantry and soup kitchen the space and tools to grow their own food.
“We have a lot of low-income people who may not have access to good solid food supply,” said Agricultural Commission vice chairwoman Elaine Clow Friday. The garden is also there for anyone who’s interested: a homeschooled student, ambitious current gardeners looking for more space, and people who rent.
“Right across the street here there are several people who garden here who don’t have space in their trailer parks,” Agricultural commission chairman John Keegan said.
“We just wanted to make space available to the community for people who need it,” Clow said. “My excuse is to keep my cabbages away from my chickens.”
In its sixth summer this year, the garden has a fair amount of interest. Currently 36 of the available 60 12’ by 12’ plots, which cost $15 each for full access to the land and water all summer, have been assigned to Boscawen and other neighboring town residents.
The area, which is owned by the town and formerly a pine stand, should be in full-growing mode by Memorial Day. Getting the garden to that point, Clow said, is no easy feat each year.
“It’s extremely intensive,” she said. Getting the plots soiled, the irrigation system in, the application process done and the plots mapped out requires a lot of planning. The community garden also hosts a composting area to show people how to create their own fertilizer, a “bee hotel” for native pollinators to nest in, a wildflower garden for the same purpose, and an herb garden.
Extra food is donated to local organizations, too, and last year, a harvest dinner was held.
The agricultural commission also hosts a series of educational workshops on Monday nights. All community gardeners are required to attend one on integrared organic pest management.
“It’s part of the agricultural commission’s mission to try to reach out to people, who aren’t farmers, with agriculture and just give them a sense of where their food is coming from,” Keegan said.
But when it comes to the garden, he said, the commission wants to do more. “The challenge has really been in reaching the people that really need it,” Keegan said, referring to low-income residents as well as young people renting in the area. “Resources are not our limitation here – it’s the audience.”
Joe Brochu, for instance, who helped his grandfather rake soil over the irrigation hoses Friday, said he’s the only one among his friends in their 20s that gardens. He has two plots at the Boscawen Community Garden, where he plans to experiment with melons, cucumbers and other vegetables.
“It’s a good way to be outside,” Brochu said. “It kind of gives me something to do and it’s fun seeing the progress.”
The agricultural commission hopes that as people drive past the community garden and see people like Brochu out there planting, weeding, and eventually, harvesting, that more interest will peak.
“It becomes a food source and a source of community focus,” Keegan said. Looking around the soil plots Friday, he added, “If we fill all of this every year, we’ll be doing well.”
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)