Cucumbers, radishes and sugar snap peas, oh my! The onset of spring brings the promise of homegrown goodness – as green thumbs begin to prepare their gardens for the warmer months ahead.
The Mattapoisett Community Garden is entering its third season, with some of its gardeners already readying their plots. The garden is a three-fourths of an acre lot – located at Pine Island Rd. and Prospect Rd. – which contains 25 garden plots.
“We didn’t have a problem getting a core group together,” said organizer Jim Stowe of the garden’s beginnings in 2010. However, he said this year about five new people will join the “informal” gardening group.
When the idea was floated in 2010 to start a community garden in Mattapoisett, the first task was identifying not only land to garden but a water source as well.
Florence Martocci, owner of a local organic farming business, stepped up and offered her property at Prospect Rd.
“She was happy to let us use the land, she wanted it for the continued use of gardens,” Stowe said, explaining that the expansion of Martocci’s business prompted her to move her crops to Rochester – rendering her sunny, garden-ready Mattapoisett lot available.
Martocci allows the gardeners to use her water supply, and at the end of the season they compensate her for whatever is used.
Also, the gardeners agree to keep their crops organic and pesticide-free.
“We don’t put peoples’ gardens under a microscope, but there is an understanding you’ll keep it organic,” said Stowe.
The garden boasts an impressive number of vegetables and flowers each year.
Entering his third season, gardener Jim Bradshaw names off an extensive list of vegetables he has harvested: tomatoes, radishes, peppers, kale, summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, and lettuce. He said of the sugar snap peas: “They are so good, you can eat them right there at the garden.”
“I’m loving every minute of it,” he said of the community gardening experience. “You get to meet a lot of different people and it gets you out of the house. We have a yard that’s too shady, and it’s perfect soil over there.”
Bradshaw said that in addition to feeding himself and his family, he also gives excess fresh vegetables away – including to the Church of the Good Shepard in Acushnet and a homeless shelter in New Bedford. He said they always welcome the food with open arms.
Bradshaw also related a funny story how his garden harvested something he didn’t even plant: pumpkins.
“There were pumpkins in the yard that we threw in a compost and in the springtime we dumped the whole pile on the lots,” he recalled. Later during the season, he said, “I could not believe the pumpkins growing all over the place. There were probably 50-60 pumpkins and they took over the whole garden. But they won’t be there this year.”
An avid fisherman as well, Bradshaw said, “between the fish and the veggies, I eat pretty well.”
Stowe said there are about four unclaimed plots. Anyone interested in gardening at the site could contact him at 508-758-4982
By Laura Fedak Pedulli