Published: January 31, 2009 07:00 pm      

Row By Row: Kalkaska volunteers trying to start community garden

KALKASKA -- Michelle Wallace envisions fields of greens.

And berries. And squash. And corn.

And all of it will be given away.

Wallace heads up a Kalkaska group organizing a community garden. VEGGO -- Volunteers Encouraging Garden Goods 4 Others -- already has the land and the plans.

Now they need the gardeners.

Wallace said, "I've got a poster that says, 'Do you have an extra hour a week? Can we have it?'"

The group has devised a team approach so that tending to the garden will remain fun and not be a burden. By signing up a team of five or six people, each team member will only have to put in an hour a week. Wallace says the ideal would be to get 11 teams. That way, the 15,000-square-foot garden will get 55 to 65 hours of attention each week.

"That's more than most gardens get," Wallace said.

The group is encouraging all ages, from babies to senior citizens, to help with the garden. In fact, many of the committee members are from the Kalkaska County Commission on Aging, a primary recipient of the planned harvests.

"We have a salad bar," said Gay Rowell, director of the commission. "If there's enough food, we'd love to get it into our home-delivered meals too."

She said the Commission on Aging serves around 60,000 meals a year at six locations. Breakfast is served at the Kalkaska Senior Center as well.

Benefits of a community garden are numerous, according to Shandal Grayson, a former board member of the American Community Garden Assocation.

Grayson is a garden leader in her Roxbury neighborhood in Boston, where there's a 22-plot community garden -- 18 plots for the community and four "really big" plots for two local high schools.

"I've met a lot of people," Grayson said. "There were some I'd seen around the neighborhood and then they'd start working on the garden and I'd think, 'I've seen you before.' "

She said a lot of the volunteers in her garden are seniors and retirees. The students use the area for studying and science experiments, she said.

An urban garden, like the one in Boston, has distinctive differences from one in Kalkaska, Grayson pointed out, including the type of animals that might show up.

"We've had possums, raccoons, squirrels," she said, "but also once a deer, a coyote and even a moose."

Grayson said most of her harvest goes to the local senior center as well as a produce truck that sells low-cost food.

Wallace said she came up with the idea about a year ago, and the plot became reality in November.

The Kalkaska County Parks and Recreation Department donated the land, which is near the phone tower at the fairgrounds.

"For what we need it for, it's perfect," Wallace said. "But it doesn't fit with the fairgrounds well."

Parks and rec is also donating the initial land prep, including tilling, arranging for water lines and making sure phone and electric lines are buried deep enough.

Wallace has ordered discount seeds through the America Beautiful program and is hoping for another grant to help pay for compost. She said Barker Creek Nursery is donating some seeds and plants as well.

"And we're asking companies that do tree removal to give us their wood chips," she said "They have to pay to get rid of it, but we'll come get it for free."

Volunteers on the committee have been assigned different tasks, such as soil prep, signs and flowers. Ronny Campbell, of Rapid City, is in charge of construction.

"We need two 8-by-8 sheds," he said. "We mainly need materials. A local company may build them for us, but we need lumber, nails, steel roof, siding. Donations are definitely welcome."

Wallace also hopes the Kalkaska High School Foods classes will be another beneficiary of the harvest. She's hoping the students will can and freeze the produce, then make it available to the Commission on Aging, possibly as spaghetti sauce or chili.

To volunteer or make donations, call Michelle Wallace, 384-1707, or Melissa Campbell, 369-3196, or e-mail veggogarden@gmail.com.