Community garden project continues to grow

Danielle Switalski

The local group Community Connections is working towards giving Plains a whole new look for next Spring.

Community Connections, a new community organization that began last fall was created to dedicate its time to the improvement of the Plains and Paradise communities. Community Connections recently received a small grant that they have decided to split in two directions. Some of the grant money was used to create a Resource Directory, which is meant to help people who are new to the area and people who may have special needs that are seeking aid through the government or churches in order to give them a place to look for any information regarding Plains or Paradise.

“We wanted to compile all the information (about Plains and Paradise) and make the information available in one place,” said Community Connections member Judy Woolley.

One copy per family of the Resource Directory is now available at local businesses and churches free of charge.

The grant money is also going towards a community garden project. The garden is set to be built along Airport Road on a plot of land that was donated by the county. Although the land is secured, the project is just getting put into motion. The initial costs, says Woolley are going to be fencing, enough pipeline to service the various garden plots and something to create a wind-block on two sides of the garden.

“So far there has been a lot of enthusiastic vocal support but we need physical support, if we could generate enough interest and willing bodies we could at least get some of the plots ready for next year,” said Woolley.

With the deer population in Plains, Woolley said the fencing is one of the very first projects that would have to be done before moving any further. As for help from the community, Community Connections is looking for strong backs, people willing to help out with some of the manual labor or simply people who take an interest in this project and would like to share their ideas.

“We need to prove that we have the need for the garden itself, some of us think it was a great idea but a lot of us have our own gardens to tend to,” said Woolley. “Many people have so many irons in the fire so its tough to get people to sign on for another commitment.”

Woolley is hopeful that the community garden will get enough support that the bulk of the work can be completed by this fall and have the garden ready for planting come Spring. In her travels, Woolley said she visited community gardens in both Arizona and South Carolina and picked up some interesting ideas for the garden. The gardens she has seen used a lot of local biproduct to lay down the pads for the garden in order to keep the dirt in place. For example, South Carolina used pine needles for the garden pads, which cut down costs. Woolley said she would like to try and bring in the old pile of wood chips from the Diehl Mill located on the East Side of Plains as “it is very old and perfect to put down in our pads.”

“I think it would be a wonderful addition to the community but only if it’s needed so I hope people will make themselves available if they are interested,” said Woolley.

If people are interested in getting involved with the community garden project, please contact anyone in the back of the Resource Directory.