Lincoln Garden Provides Vegetables To Many

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER These Lincoln students are volunteers in the community garden. They shared information about the garden recently with the Farmington Garden Club. Those who spoke were Rosa Hernandez, Zaki Allouh, Jordan Montgomery and David Embrey.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER These Lincoln students are volunteers in the community garden. They shared information about the garden recently with the Farmington Garden Club. Those who spoke were Rosa Hernandez, Zaki Allouh, Jordan Montgomery and David Embrey.

FARMINGTON -- Lincoln Community Garden provided fresh, homegrown vegetables to more than 1,000 families in 2015 and is gearing up for its second year.

Joe Sposato, a master gardener and one of the coordinators and volunteers for the garden, recently spoke to the Farmington Garden Club about the community project and how it was started. Sposato brought along four Lincoln Middle School students who helped in the garden last year.

Based on his experience last year, Sposato is making several changes for 2016.

For one, he said the rows were planted too closely together. This made it impossible to use a tractor or mower to weed and mow between the rows. The rows will be farther apart this year and the area in between mulched to help keep weeds down.

He also is approaching more groups this year to volunteer in the garden during the summer. Last year, a limited number of people helped when school was out and the work became quite time-consuming for those individuals.

But other than a few changes, city officials believe the first year for the community garden was a great success.

Sposato kept a running count of the vegetables donated to GRACE Place and Lincoln Senior Center.

In all, 2,377 tomatoes were given away. Other donations included 1,116 cucumbers, 216 yellow squash, 205 zucchini squash, 57 gallons of black-eye peas, 35 gallons of okra and 26.5 gallons of green beans.

Sposato explained to Farmington Garden Club members that Mayor Rob Hulse had a vision for a community garden and the city donated land for the site and appointed a community garden committee.

"The committee wanted to make sure that people in our community had access to fresh vegetables for free," Sposato said.

The garden is sustained by several volunteers, including Sposato and Hulse, City Council members, Lincoln Adventure Club and master gardeners Eileen Kelly and Madge Halterman.

Other partners are businesses in Lincoln and northwest Arkansas, Washington County Extension Office, Lincoln Ministerial Alliance, school groups and other non-profit organizations.

The committee was able to start the garden with less than $1,000 in community support, Sposato said.

A key part of the project was developing a mission statement and operating rules and regulations.

The first part of the mission statement says: "Lincoln Community Garden is dedicated to maintaining a community garden that provides education and beautification to the community and supplies food for its members."

Rules and regulations were developed to ensure the maintenance of a neat and productive garden and assure a pleasant environment for all people in the garden.

The students who spoke are enrolled in classes taught by science teacher Ivan Huffmaster and have been named ambassadors for the garden.

Zaki Allouh said volunteering as classes brought students closer together. The students worked in early spring last year picking up trash and rocks and preparing the ground for plants.

"It was full of junk," said Zaki.

Rosa Hernandez said they learned it is possible to help on a small scale and make a difference.

The students already are helping this year and have spent time planting rows of onion bulbs, Rosa added.

Patsy Pike, a member of Farmington's club, noted the students were learning the value of a dollar and how to spend their time wisely, as well as learning speaking skills by serving as garden ambassadors.

Farmington's club is considering options for different projects to try. They've already landscaped one area at Creekside Park.

Sposato gave some advice if the club decides to look at a community garden. He told them to find a place, get the school involved and make sure the site has access to water.

"We got it going one step at a time," Sposato said.

Community on 04/27/2016