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Garden Gates Opening Again in Saybrook and Westbrook

Garden guru Debbie Quinn, the Valley Shore Y’s controller and Partners to Grow Community Garden manager, said that the garden’s volunteers will start planting seeds next week, launching the third season growing herbs and vegetables for the Shoreline Soup Kitchen & Pantries site in Westbrook.

“We’re ready to plant and tend,” said Quinn.

Quinn hopes this growing season will beat last year’s yield of more than 2,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and herbs. With a shifting mix of vegetables in the beds, adoption of new techniques, and good luck with the weather, it might be possible.

Heavy work to prepare the garden beds for planting has been underway this month. Soil amendments and compost were added to enrich each of the 30 planting beds. Wood chips were laid down to mark the pathways between the beds. And next week, weather permitting, volunteers will start the season by laying down in each bed home-made seed tape to jump-start the cool season vegetables like peas, kale, spinach, lettuce, and Swiss chard.

The seed tape concept is an innovation that Quinn hopes will minimize seed waste and eliminate the tedious task of thinning seedlings. Seed tapes are being made this month by children and adult garden volunteers.

The tape project is easy for volunteers, even children, to complete. Volunteers start with narrow strips of biodegradable strips of paper that have been marked in one-inch increments. Using whole wheat flour-and-water paste, individual seeds are attached to the paper strips at one-inch intervals to make seed tapes. The tapes are then planted in the prepared garden beds. When the seeds sprout and grow up through the soil, the seed tape method ensures the seeds are perfectly spaced to thrive. No seedling thinning is required.

“We had the most success last year growing green beans and yellow wax beans, so we’re adding more beans this year. We’re also adding a third zucchini, a third cucumber, and a third summer squash bed. We had to drop broccoli because we were not producing enough of it,” said Quinn. “The Food Pantry would prefer that we provide them with a large quantity of everyday vegetables rather than providing them with a lot of variety.”

Quinn was told by Food Pantry staff that it is easier to divide the fresh offerings evenly among the pantry’s clients when there are more vegetables of the same kind.

So while there may be less variety this season, the pantry’s clients should benefit from having a greater quantity of fresh vegetables included in their weekly grocery bags.

“In the past two years, thanks to donations from businesses, organizations, and $7,500 in grants from the Westbrook Foundation, we’ve been able to add new planting beds, install a drip irrigation system, and add a deer fence. The Y garden is now 30 beds of four feet by 24 feet,” said Quinn.

Starting in late May, the garden’s volunteers will begin planting summer vegetable seedlings in the beds. Until the danger of a hard frost is over, the seedlings will remain indoors in a protected greenhouse environment.

“Riggio’s Garden Center is growing our plants from seed in their greenhouse; we will plant them in the garden in late May,” said Quinn.

In addition to Riggio’s, a number of businesses and organizations have stepped up to adopt one of the 30 planting beds for a $250 donation. A sign is placed in each adopted bed to recognize the adopting group. The donated funds are used to buy the soil amendments and other materials necessary for the beds to produce. To date, beds have been adopted by groups like St. John’s School, Rotary Club, the Knights of Columbus, and even a grandmother who adopted a bed to honor her three grandchildren.

“All of the garden is funded by community donations, grants, and supported through the labor of volunteers,” said Quinn. “That’s what keeps it running.”

Now that the season has begun, Debbie Quinn is seeking to add community volunteers who would like to join her garden team. Volunteers don’t have to be a Valley Shore Y member to help tend, weed, and harvest vegetables through the spring, summer, and fall months. Anyone who is interested should email Quinn at dquinn@vsymca.org. Volunteers’ names are added to Quinn’s Garden email list; an email blast is sent out weekly to the 100 names on the list to update those on the list on garden activities and progress.

Every Tuesday morning is harvest time. Once picked, volunteers from Vista Life Innovations in Westbrook package the produce and transport it to St. Mark’s Church Shoreline Soup Kitchen Food Pantry for distribution to those in need.

Those who struggle are so grateful to receive the donations of fresh produce. One story relayed by a garden volunteer was of a mother waiting at the food pantry for her bag. She noticed that her child had reached out and eaten one of the raw beans delivered to the pantry. She apologized, saying that her daughter loved green beans. She was concerned that is was not washed. The volunteer then told her that the donated fresh vegetables were grown organically by volunteers and had been picked just two hours before—the generosity brought tears to the woman’s eyes.

“Our goal at the Y Garden is to grow fresh organic vegetables and give it all away,” said Quinn.

Community Garden Partners

The shoreline’s several community gardens maintain strong connections with one another to share knowledge about best practices including learning about which vegetables grow well and which don’t thrive.

In Clinton, the Food for All Garden at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Advent grows vegetables and herbs for the Clinton Shoreline Soup Kitchen pantry. In Old Saybrook, behind Grace Episcopal Church, is the model for all of the other community gardens, the Common Goods Garden. Claudia Van Nes coordinates the volunteer team for the Common Goods Garden.

“We’re in our 14th year raising and delivering vegetables to the Shoreline Soup Kitchen & Pantries in Old Saybrook, East Lyme, Lyme, and Westbrook. We garden this time of year on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the morning. Volunteers can come when they can. They should email me at claudiavannes@aol.com and I’ll include them on our list of volunteers who get emails outlining the work before each workday,” wrote Van Nes.

Later in the season, Thursdays are added as an additional work day.

“We need both drivers and garden workers—no experience necessary and [it’s] a wonderful way to learn vegetable gardening,” said Ven Nes.