Summer Update at Arsenal Park Community Garden

by APCG Captains Marilyn Salvas and Susan Francis

The Arsenal Park Community Garden has had a busy season so far this year! We have held several events in the garden.

On April 26th, we hosted a Strawberry Plant Pop-Up Plant Giveaway. Watertown Community Gardens had a lot of strawberry plants from the Knowles Delta garden that was damaged in a car accident during this past winter.  The Pollinator Pathways Committee helped to rescue the plants and the Arsenal Park Community Garden held a give away.  This event was so popular that we are planning on raising strawberry plants to give away next year.

On May 31st, we had a Container Gardening event, open to the public, that was run by two of our community gardeners, Meaghan and Shawna. We prepared and planted several of our vegetables in the Demonstration Container Garden. Attendees went home with containers that they planted.

On June 14th, we had an Herbs in the Gardens event where Kristina Courage of BESTEA talked about the medicinal effects of several herbs that we grow in Arsenal Park Community Garden and answered participants' questions about herbalism.

On June 28, we also hosted the WCG Pollinator Pathways Committee in the Seedling Transplant & Swap event where native seedlings were divided from winter sown jugs into more than 100 pots and swapped among the attendees. Many of the plants will be planted along the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway, our pollinator gardens, and roadside gardens.

The APCG steering committee also defined two additional groups within the garden:

• Pollinator group: This group of gardeners cares for the pollinator garden.
• Food group: This group of 14 gardeners grows food and distributes it to the local organizations that provide food for Watertown's food insecure population.

The Food group has donated to the Community Fridge, the Catholic Collaborative Food Pantry, and Watertown Food Pantry, as well as contributing to the produce give-away at the Lexington Gardens housing in west Watertown. We made 67 food donations between May through July 15, coming to 88 pounds of fresh produce!

Produce delivered so far consists of baby spinach, basil, bok choy, celery, chrysanamia, cilantro, dill, eggplant, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, lambs quarter, lettuce, mixed greens, mustard greens, onions, oregano, parsley, peas, potatoes, radish, scallions, summer squash, swiss chard, and zucchini.

With plenty of summer still ahead, we're looking forward to more harvests, community events, and opportunities to grow food and strengthen our community together.