Local gardeners are snapping up community garden plots

May 9, 2023  |  By Jeanne Atchinson 

The Duxbury Community Garden sits between the Winooski River and River Road in Duxbury. File photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Residents in the Duxbury, Waterbury, and Moretown area have a few places to choose from if they’re thinking about renting a community garden plot this season but reservations are filling up fast. 

Costs are extremely reasonable, access is easy, all are in very sunny locations and being communities, they all come with other gardeners – newbies as well as veterans.

Waterbury’s Community Gardens are in two areas. The North Gardens with 12 plots are directly behind Waterbury’s Municipal Building and Public Library at 28 N. Main Street. The library also has a Word Garden with wildflower plantings to attract pollinators. Fruit trees will be planted this spring along its far edge thanks to a grant from the Vermont Garden Network. Waterbury’s South Gardens with 30 plots are at the end of Winooski Street near the river before the bridge. The plots are in a quiet spot in view of Hope Cemetery.  

Cross over the Winooski Street bridge to Duxbury and head left onto River Road. After meandering along for about six-tenths of a mile, you’ll find the Duxbury Community Garden on the left tucked down where a homestead once stood. Visitors can be found snacking at the table or sharing tea at a cluster of lawn chairs, or just wandering the paths between garden plots admiring and learning about what can be grown in Zone 4.

While residency is not an issue with either community and their gardens, most renters of these plots return each year because they find a calmness as they work in the dirt, a camaraderie with their neighbors, a sense of awe as a tiny seed sprouts or a bald eagle soars overhead. There’s just nothing like sitting, dirty, at the edge of a plot, listening to the birds and the creaking trees, for mental health and personal wellness.

Both gardens are members of the Vermont Garden Network, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to the growth and support of the state’s vibrant network of community and school gardens. Both gardens also have gardeners who donate excess crops to the local food shelves.

Waterbury’s gardens are overseen by the Recreation Coordinator Wyatt O’Brien. Information on the Waterbury Community Gardens is posted on the municipal website under the Recreation Department heading under Programs. The Community Gardens Handbook lists the garden rules and has plot maps to see the layouts of the two areas. 

Prior members of the Waterbury gardens had to reapply by May 1 to reserve the same spot for this year. Afterward, applications will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis to assign the remaining plots. Plots are either 20 feet by 20 feet, or 20 feet by 40 feet, and rent for $30-$55 for the season. The website and handbook have details on resident/non-resident rates. 

Scheduled burning at the gardens in Waterbury was not possible due to rainy conditions this year, according to the Waterbury Fire Department. They will be tilled and marked and ready to be gardened by mid-late May, according to O’Brien. They remain open until the end of November. 

The Duxbury Gardens close at the end of October each year and have opened as of May 5, earlier than ever. As of this writing, there were three new members for 2023 and just one plot available to rent as most gardeners are returning. 

The Duxbury space differs from the Waterbury Gardens in that gardeners share resources such as manure, wood shavings and raw chips, some hay, posts and tomato cages. Fences remain up (groundhogs) and perennials and garlic can spend the winter. The gardens are an organic, low- or no-till area that utilizes mulch to preserve water, microbes, mycelium and other beneficials in the soil.

Gardeners in Duxbury are learning how to use gardening to capture carbon from the air and store it underground. They’re learning what to grow to add nutrients to the soil and how to attract both pollinators and beneficial insects so that pest control can happen behind the scenes. There are many photos of the garden as well as posts relevant to area gardeners on the Facebook page DuxburyCommunityGarden.

Plots in Duxbury are 20 feet by 20 feet or 15 feet by 20 feet. Rent is $30-35 per plot, payable when submitting a signed agreement. More about the 17½ Duxbury Community Garden plots, as well as contact information, can be found online at DuxburyCommunityGarden.org. 

Each of the gardens has its unique features and routines. For example, there are water faucets and probably some hoses at the Waterbury plots. Duxbury uses gravity and 265-gallon water tanks to get water on site, with gardeners using watering cans in the earlier weeks of the summer. As the budget allows, hoses have been added to get water closer to the plots with more being installed this season. 

Waterbury asks renters to bring their own implements while Duxbury has most of the tools that a gardener would need (used/donated/cleaned/sharpened), including a couple of old wheelbarrows, on site as well as a lending library of gardening and other resource books. 

Both of the community gardens are wonderful places to garden. If you’re thinking that you’d like a sunny spot with friendly people coming by to grow your tomatoes or pumpkins or zinnias, do reach out to Wyatt or Jeanne for more information.

Also, please enjoy watching this short video by Jesse McDougall, made in Spring 2021 as part of a story for Waterbury Roundabout.

Waterbury resident Jeanne Atchinson is co-founder and manager of the Duxbury Community Garden and often can be found on site during the gardening season.