Want to join the urban garden movement? Here's a way in

grandgardens-4-0923 — It's the best time of the year for Florida backyard gardeners

BY MICHELE MILLER
What’s What New Port Richey

Sunday is a general work day for members of Grand Gardens where recent chores included surveying what needed to be cleared for fall planting and painting an old wooden picnic table that serves as a gathering spot for those attending workshops and events.

The Grand Gardens organic community garden was established 10 years ago and is located on land donated by the Creative Institute of Dental Arts that once was home to the city’s police station. Presently, there are about 25 working plots with a few grow beds still available, said garden director, Steve Hayes. The standard fee to rent a 10′ x 10′ plot is $50 for the year which helps defray the costs of water and insurance and helps to keep gardeners coming back.

FarmNet and Grand Garden Members Steve Hayes (director), Amelia Maseda, Shawn Dworkin and Barbara Klepper (manager) PHOTO | MICHELE MILLER

“Some people come out and at first they’re all in, but then they lose interest,” Hayes said. “It helps if there’s some blood in the game.”

Hayes, who has a front and backyard garden at his Holiday homestead, knows well the value of growing your own food. When he was about 11 years old his dad lost his job. The family ended up renting a farm in Indiana.

“That’s what fed us for three years,” he said. “We learned to grow, to can, forage, and fish.”

Now he, along with a core group of volunteers, are sharing their knowledge with others.

“There are so many things I like about this garden,” said volunteer, Amelia Maseda, a ten-year member whose plot was filled with sweet potatoes, papaya, white eggplant, Malabar spinach and rosemary. “I think what I like most about it is that it’s a safe, peaceful place for the community.”

“It’s all about local food production and about community building. The most important part of the work is the community education dimension of it,” said Dell deChant, a longtime leader of New Port Richey FarmNet who serves as Chair of the city’s Environmental Committee and is also a professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida.

“It’s great to have a plot, plant some seeds, and grow some food that you can eat, but this is also about the importance of bringing people together under a common vision of sustainability and biodiversity. The educational feature of it is really the most crucial part. Absent education, all you have is people growing food on their own.”

Would-be gardeners will no doubt benefit from some upcoming classes on composting, pest control and on what herbs to grow to make your own tea. Children are a part of the picture as well, as members of FarmNet will soon be partnering with teachers and students to create a school garden and outdoor learning classroom at Richey Elementary.

“This is the peak season to start seed – from October to March is fabulous,” said Barbara Klepper, a Master Gardner who commutes from Spring Hill to manage the garden. “It’s wonderful – life transforming. I eat healthy and I owe that to the garden.”

While food ends up on the gardener’s dinner table, it might also supplement income with some local crops being sold at local farmers’ markets, at Wright’s Natural Food Market on Main Street through an ongoing partnership with FarmNet and at a monthly market held at Rose’s Bistro.

What is left over is donated to be distributed to those in need or ends up back in the compost pile., Hayes said.

“Nothing goes to waste.”

Members of FarmNet also host various food festivals throughout the year, offering tastings, and educational presentations and sometimes selling fresh vegetables or fruit and sundries derived from what’s harvested by local growers.

The Okra Occassion was most recently held in August featuring a variety of homemade recipes for tasting with Rose’s Bistro earning first place among voters for Okra Quiche.

That event, held at the New Port Richey Public Library, featured presentations on the city’s ecological initiatives such as the Tasty Tuesday Community Market and the library’s Seed Catalog which offers local gardeners the opportunity to borrow seeds that can be replaced later with seeds they harvest themselves. As of 2021, the library loaned out some 9,000 seeds, said Tomás Monzón, program specialist for the NPR Library.

Also present were speakers from NPR FarmNet, the local branch of the Sierra Club and there was an invitation to sign up for “The Green Pool'” a new collective of volunteers that will work on specific environmental projects.

Coming events include the Sweet Potato Round-Up (Nov.19) The Collard Greens Festival (Jan. 7) and the Loquat Festival in the spring (March).

Next on the agenda, this month is a seed-starting workshop led by Steve Hayes and Barbara Klepper (Sunday, Sept. 3 at 12 p.m.) In the offing are classes on Herbal Teas, Composting, Fermentation, Canning, Dehydration and pest control. Farm-to-table dinners are typically scheduled at various times on a to-be-determined basis.

There’s also a poetry night headed by Shawn Dworkin that is held regularly on the second Friday of each month as a way to foster community and welcome new people in – whether they garden or not.

“The garden becomes more than a garden,” Dworkin said. “For many of us, it becomes a second home – a sanctuary.”

If you go: Grand Gardens is located at 5721 Grand Boulevard, New Port Richey. All are welcome to attend events and workshops. Donations are welcome, but not required. For questions or more info email Steve Hayes at Gimp@gimponics.com or visit the Grand Gardens Facebook page. For information on NPR FarmNet, go to the Facebook page.