What was once a cement basketball court in north Casper is now the location for 33, 4×8-foot rentable garden plots. Transformation to the Seeds of Sharing Community Gardens comes following hundreds of hours of volunteer hard labor from a wide range of local organizations.
Situated on the grounds of Winter Memorial Presbyterian Church off St. John’s Street, the community garden organizers held the first garden plot registration and neighborhood barbecue May 11. A second such event will take place June 8.
Raised beds rent for $10 for the season and include water and access to tools and compost.
North Casper resident Christopher Weber rented two plots for his family of five.
“I love gardening. We live in an apartment complex and there’s no place for us to have a garden. I lived out in northern California many years ago and was part of a big community garden there and spent a lot of time working the garden and learned to really appreciate not just the gardening aspect, but also the food. Your peppers, your tomatoes, whatever you’re growing out of the garden … it tastes better.”
With no grocery stores located in north Casper, Lori Lancaster, a member of Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, said addressing that fact is one goal.
“North Casper is kind of a food desert when it comes to fresh produce. There aren’t any grocery stores here except for the Mini-Mart and so we thought it would be a good idea to bring the gardens to the community, both for the gardening and to provide them with fresh vegetables for their homes,” Lancaster said.
Shepherd of the Hills is one of three principle groups behind the project. They’ve provided leadership and hands and feet on the ground, as well as financial support. The initial vision came from members of the Winter Memorial Church. Casper’s Young Rotarians network, Rotaract, have been instrumental in grounding the vision.
Last summer there was a big push to transform the property. Volunteers transformed both a basketball court and the adjacent James Reeb Memorial children’s playground into raised-bed garden spaces.
Additional muscle came from the likes of the Natrona County High School football team and Casper firefighters. Concrete was taken up, dirt was moved, trees were planted, walkways created, raised beds constructed, and a storage shed built.
Grant monies purchased new equipment for the playground. That equipment now awaits installation.
“It was like a beehive here for a while, building the frames and it was fun,” said Sandy Patten, former member of Winter Memorial’s congregation. Patton worked two garden plots last year and donated much of what she produced to Joshua’s Storehouse. Joshua’s in turn has donated seedlings and seed packets for gardeners.
A grant from Home Depot bought construction materials like lumber, hardware and landscaping rocks. Home Depot volunteers also helped move in some very heavy stones that surround the beds.
Heather Webb, Rotaract Community Garden Committee, said the first season of growing began a little late and growers had to drag hoses out to their gardens from the church. This spring, however, thanks to a push from Rotaract volunteers, installation of water spigots next to the garden plots was completed.
A tool drive secured plenty of shovels, trowels, rakes and hoses — everything needed to make gardening possible. A compost pile molders on site.
Webb said they’re doing everything they can to keep the gardens pesticide- and herbicide-free, including an agreement signed by plot renters to keep the garden natural. “That way people will know what’s going into their food with no random chemicals sprayed on anything.”
Webb said they hope to make some beds easy access for elderly gardeners who find the rock walkways difficult to navigate.
Webb, also a member of the Downtown Farmers Market committee, said they spent time at the market questioning folks there about what they would want. “We actually set up a booth and asked people what they were interested in as far as a community garden and it was amazing how many people showed up and said, ‘This is where my neighborhood is and I would love that’. So I think the need and the want is really here,” Webb said.
Webb acknowledges the existing community plots at the Natrona County Agricultural Resource and Learning Center near the fairgrounds and said the Seeds of Sharing Community Gardens simply means more plots available at an affordable price.
“Many of the same people have been working those plots for years, which is really nice for them, but then the plots never seem to open up. So having these available to people, plus getting the soil in there, talking to gardeners about what’s going on in the ground, also builds a large sense of community when you’ve got people working side by side. You get people who’ve lived across the street from each other for years and now they can know each other from the garden. That’s a large part of the community garden project.”
A second garden plot rental event on June 8 invites anyone interested — you don’t have to live in north Casper — to take a look at the gardens and sign up. Plus there will be a barbecue hosted by volunteers from the Food For Thought Project.
Rotaract hopes to recruit a licensed contractor to install the children’s playground equipment this summer.
The next garden signup and barbecue happens from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. June 8 at the Seeds of Sharing Community Garden site, 900 St. John’s St.
For more information or to reserve a garden plot, call 235-3536.
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