Southport Magazine

Gardening is in my blood. I grew up in a rural Illinois town. Our house was on a large lot and included a huge garden in the back corner. Back then, everyone had a vegetable garden as it was part of life. I remember wandering through the rows, snatching up radishes and cherry tomatoes as a snack between summer games with my friends. Gardening has become popular again, with home gardens popping up all over. But for those with small yards or apartment renters, finding the space for a garden can be a challenge. Southport is blessed to have a community garden just to address that challenge. 

For nearly seven years, a group of area residents have been cultivating a garden on the edge of the BCC campus in Southport. The Caswell Avenue Community Garden sits on the BCC property and is maintained and run by a group of local gardeners. I recently met with several of the gardeners to see just what was growing over there beyond the grass. I quickly found out that this is more than gardening. This is a community.

“Our first planting was in the spring of 2014,” said Marjorie Jones, who has been a member since the beginning. According to Jones, gardening beds are rented to community members as they become available. Right now, all the 37 available beds are rented out. “When we planned the garden, it was a community garden. And the ‘community’ is just as important as ‘garden.’ We value our getting together here and being in touch with the community around here,” said Jones. “Right now, we are really missing our monthly meetings, because that’s when everybody comes and we talk about our gardens. It’s a real community. And we’re proud of that,” she said.

I was drawn into the group by their openness and love for their gardens. Within a short amount of time, I learned about organic foods, composting, companion planting and pesticide-free ways to deal with insects. “One of our missions here is the sharing bed. We have the two really large L-shaped gardens, and then Southport Garden Club has rented a bed in here where they donate everything to the Sharing Committee. We meet on Tuesday mornings and we plant and harvest and distribute to people that can’t get out and grow their own vegetables,” said Patti Van Wagner. “It’s food sharing and we have about 8-10 people that we give to,” she said.

It is sharing and a strong community mentality. And it’s a beautiful place to relax and take your mind off things during this pandemic. Very few gardeners come at the same time and it’s easy to social distance. “For me, it’s been very therapeutic just to be here working in the soil. It helps me mentally with mental health where otherwise we would be shut in,” said Sage Seeley. “Another thing about the people working here is that they are very good about if they have a surplus of something, they will donate to us to give to the people in the area, or we just share amongst us,” said Seeley. They also provide scholarships for those who cannot afford the cost of the garden bed.

“We are totally organic. No insecticides and we compost everything,” said Tom Lombardi. As a former bricklayer, Lombardi used his skills to create the raised brick beds, and he also created a fantastic compost pile with two sides to rotate the compost back and forth. Now all the gardens are made with large bricks and some are even elevated higher off the ground. Some of the gardeners bring their food scraps from home for the compost. “I have all the room in the world at my house but I only came down here because it’s a community,” said Lombardi. “And that’s why I do it basically.”

A nice wooden shed sits on the side of the garden where members can borrow tools if they need them. “So, if you join and you don’t have tools, you can use our tools. People who have excess seeds that they don’t need they put in a box to share those for others to use,” said Maureen Terman. They also have begun to plant native plants such as Spiderworts, planting flower gardens to attract pollinators, and they have always let the plants go to flower. A large rain barrel is located under the gutter on the shed to collect rainwater.

Each gardener has their own methods of fertilizing and natural pest control. “This is all organic,” said Teresa Halliwell as she showed me her garden. “It’s the first garden I’ve had that was organic and raised,” she said. “I cleaned out all the old soil, and put in cow manure from my brother’s farm in Fuquay, and got big buckets of clay and sand. I brought it here, added new soil, manure, clay and sand in a wheelbarrow, mixed it all up and that’s basically all it is,” said Halliwell. “It’s all a learning experience. You read and do research.”

The gardeners give credit to Brunswick Community College for providing the land to grow on and all their support. The City of Southport now handles the money for the gardeners. “So, when people apply they go to city hall and fill out the application,” said Jones. “But we handle all the decisions and everything we do. Right now, there is a waiting list. But if a bed is given up, people can get it.” If you would like to enquire about obtaining a garden bed, contact Marjorie Jones at circle44016@att.net.