On a recent Thursday morning, before the weather got too hot, Peter Ellermann was preparing a bed of soil to plant some green and yellow beans.

Like all the gardeners at the Birch Street community garden, he has to haul in his own tools and water, but he said it’s worth it.

“The food tastes so much better than what I buy in the store,” he said.

For four years now, Ellermann and his wife have been cultivating a vegetable garden at the Birch Street garden in Concord.

The Concord couple lives in a condo where they are able to grow some flowers, but there is “not enough room for a vegetable garden.”

There is on Birch Street. So far, the Ellermanns have planted corn, squash, turnips, carrots, beets, eggplant, bok choy, lettuce, peas, shallots and garlic, with more to come. Whatever doesn’t get eaten right away after harvest goes into the freezer.

“From June till the following February, we have homegrown food out of here. Saves a lot of money at the store,” he said.

The garden is located on state forest land off Birch Street, a dirt road that runs between Clinton Street (near the intersection with Langley Parkway) and Iron Works Road in Concord.

It’s a home away from home for many who have spent countless hours year after year cultivating their plots and becoming friends with their garden neighbors.

“Here, you get to be around people,” said Peggy Brown, 58, of Pembroke, who lives in an apartment and has been gardening at Birch Street for six years. “When you’re home, you’re home alone.”

Being able to renew plots lets gardeners plant crops that take multiple years to establish or require spring or fall planting. Renewing gardeners are given first priority each spring, but the New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands “usually have some left over,” said Bob Spoerl, land agent and garden organizer. There are still plots available this year at 25 feet by 50 feet for $20, 50 feet by 50 feet for $30 or 100 feet by 50 feet for $40.

On the NHTI campus on the other side of town, all 168 plots at the Sycamore Community Garden are taken. Demand is always high at this garden project that’s located off the bus route and is designed for New Americans and other low-income residents in the Concord area. To keep things as fair as possible, organizers use a lottery system to offer unrenewed plots each spring.

For a $15 fee each growing season, gardeners are granted access to a 13-foot-by-25-foot plot to grow food for themselves and their families. They are given an allotment of compost and seedlings and have access to community tools, ground cover, water wells and a port-a-potty.

For those who can’t afford the fee, help is available.

“We’re actually opening up a new opportunity for people in the community to sponsor a plot,” said administrative manager Kym Ventola. Scholarships supported through donations are also given out.

Residents in the Boscawen area also have a gardening option. The town offers 12-foot-by-12-foot plots for $15 a season at the Boscawen Community Garden at the corner of Corn Hill Road and Woodbury Lane. Gardeners get access to water and a shared herb garden. This year’s season runs from April 28 to Oct. 8 and plots are still available.

Rules at each of these gardens are mostly enforced through the honor system, whether they’re in regards to organic practices, upkeep, stealing or selling yields, since community garden plots are offered for people to grow food for themselves and their families. Losing portions of a crop to outside theft is just a reality for some.

“I’ve had people steal vegetables, but I’ve never seen them squished out on the road, so I’m just praying that if people take things it’s because they really need it,” said Barbara Meyer, 60, of Epsom at the Birch Street garden. “It can be a drawback to being here.”

For more information about the Birch Street community garden, contact Bob Spoerl at 271-2765 or Robert.Spoerl@dred.nh.gov, or for information about the Boscawen gardens, Linda Chandonnet can be reached at lchandonnet@townofboscawen.org or 753-9188 ext. 321. More information about the Sycamore Community Garden can be found at sycamorecommunitygarden.org.

(Elizabeth Frantz can be reached at efrantz@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@lizfrantz.)

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