Gardeners Galore Local Community Groups Are Sprouting Up
by Linda Sechrist P
eople garden not only to make something grow, but to interact with nature; to share, to find sanc- tuary, to heal and to honor the Earth. Ask the seasoned and novice members of the Cassena Gardening Group why they are involved in a community gar- den project and they’ll offer additional explanations: to foster a sense of com- munity, enjoy solitude, save money, get more nutrient-dense, fresh produce into their diet and know the source of their food.
The Cassena garden thrums with enthused activity as members share in- formal duties: Rows are planned; seeds are selected, ordered and planted; and the soil is tested, aerated and built up with mulch and compost. Members also share the tasks of fertilizing the soil with worm tea and a mixture of fish emul- sion and seaweed; keeping it watered and weeded; and finally, harvesting the garden’s bounty. The 3,600-square-foot plot is located in Gerry Segal’s back- yard, in North Naples.
Sharing the Work and the Bounty
In 2009, while musing over how he was going to take care of a big garden for yet another growing season, the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) professor of entrepreneurship came up the idea of sharing his plot with others. “Gardening is a lot of work, and I don’t have the time it takes to do everything, so I thought it would be nice to share the responsibilities and the bounty,”
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recalls Segal, who is also a permacul- ture design consultant. He appealed to several gardening students who had participated in a hands-on class that he and Frank Oakes, owner of Food & Thought Organic Market & Restau- rant, taught together in 2009 at Oakes’ organic farm, near Immokalee. A core group of 10 began; all fin- ished the growing season and one went off after harvest to start another garden group. “We are a group of people who are dedicated and committed to organi- cally growing our own food and eating better,” says Segal. “Everyone of us has an assigned job and we are all the kind of people who can be counted on to show up without being reminded.”
Giving to the Garden and Getting Back Bill Van Arsdale shows up on Sat- urdays to perform his task of spraying worm casting tea on rows of plants. Added to the soil, the castings carry a rich complement of soluble plant nutri- ents and growth-enhancing compounds to the root zone, and they harbor a storehouse of nutrients not easily lost to rain or irrigation. “This is ultimately about us connecting with our food source, growing without pesticides, and lowering our food carbon footprint by not eating food that has been transport- ed for hundreds or thousands of miles. In some ways, it is a form of protest against big agribusiness and its harmful effects on our environment” says Van Arsdale.
Laura Farley’s path to the project was a circuitous one that began with her pediatrician, Dr. Brian Thornburg, who uses his backyard garden to edu- cate the parents of his patients about the importance of fresh, nutritious foods for children. Two movies, Food Inc. and The Future of Food, led to Farley’s “Aha” moment, in turn prompting Inter- net research and a quest for fresh foods for his daughters Grace, 8, and Katie, 7. Farley’s search could have ended at Naples Greenola, a local food co-op, but she didn’t stop there. Additional investigating led the CPA to a client whose husband is also a Cassena gar- dener. Responsible for categorizing and
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