- April 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
WINTER GARDEN — Pam Autrey’s granddaughter is proving that gardening is so easy, even a kid can do it. Nine-year-old Isabella Rogers has her own plot in the Winter Garden Community Garden, located on an unassuming five-acre parcel at Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, where she tends to her wildflowers, carrots and cabbage and her chocolate mint, which she loves to add to her tea.
Autrey, who has several plots of her own, is one of the newest members on the garden board, and she’s working to get the word out that 24 of 101 plots are empty and waiting for residents to exercise their green thumbs and to reap the benefits of organic gardening. This month, the garden celebrates its sixth anniversary, and Autry is there practically every day, either to check on her plants or to answer questions and help other gardeners with their plots.
“When I’m there, people pull in, and I put on my membership hat and explain everything to them that’s going on,” Autrey said.
In her personal 4-foot-by-16-foot spaces, she has some wildflowers, but a majority of the dirt is dedicated to vegetables such as cabbage, Swiss chard, carrots, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and turnips.
For $30, gardeners get a year of access to water, compost and garden tools. Another bonus is the new friendships that can blossom.
“There’s a lot of people there that want to socialize, and we have a picnic area there, and there’s every generation there – great-grandma, grandma, moms, dads, kids,” she said.
Not everyone wants to hold a conversation at the garden, though, and that’s OK, too, Autrey said.
“There’s also people who come out there from the really busy day. … It’s nice to be able to get out there and get away,” she said.
TAKING ROOT
It was six years ago that city officials in Winter Garden provided the five acres for the community garden. The property was earmarked for affordable housing, but construction wasn’t slated for at least five more years, and city leaders wanted the land to serve a useful purpose in the meantime.
More than 100 spots were mapped out for the garden, and all were immediately taken, with a waiting list started for residents eager to get seeds in the soil.
Master gardeners donated their time to the garden and the participants, ready to dole out advice where warranted. The city also donated $5,000 toward connecting the garden to city water, building a fence and installing a bridge over a ditch at the entrance.
Raised beds have been built and perimeter plots are available for residents with disabilities.
Twelve spaces are designated as “charity plots,” and fresh vegetables are cultivated for local organizations. One-and-one-half acres are set aside for selling the bounty at the weekly Winter Garden Farmers Market.
There are 10 garden angel plots that have been purchased and donated to someone else. There is room for more, Autrey said.
For these programs to work at the garden, the non-profit organization depends on local support. Monetary and in-kind donations have been made by Lowe’s Home Improvement, Bloom & Grow Garden Society, The Bond Foundation, Winter Garden Rotary Club, Manheim Orlando, American Water Supply, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, America in Bloom, Central Florida Boy Scouts, Trail Blazers and many individuals.
Charlie Mae Wilder is still garden president and maintains her plot. So does Nancy Reid, who started planting in the community garden when the gates were first opened six years ago.
To keep gardeners abreast of what’s going on there, a bulletin board is set up in the center of the garden, and Autrey posts information on monthly gardening classes with topics such as square-foot gardening and how to grow the best tomatoes, all led by the Orange County Extension Education Center at the Jessie Brock Community Center, on Dillard Street. Gardeners also can add messages if they have extra vegetables they’d like to trade.
SHARING THE BOUNTY
A garden-to-table event is planned from 6:30 to 8 p.m Friday, May 15, at the garden, with a rain date of May 29.
“People will be able to come in and taste what we’re growing in the garden and get to learn exactly what we’re all about,” Autrey said.
She is hoping this might encourage more residents to pick up some seed packets and see what they can grow.
“We promote education, help the hungry and create a fun place for all to get away from their busy life,” Autrey said. “It’s hard to explain the good feeling you get when you reap a good harvest and sit down at the table and eat it. With the growing trend of organic growing, you can really have ‘hands on’ control of your nutrition.”
Winter Garden residents who want to try their hand at gardening can call Pam Autrey at (407) 600-2159 or email her at [email protected] and type COMMUNITY GARDEN (all caps) in the subject line.
Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].
