Montville Digs Community Gardens

Kathie Doherty-Peck and Ellen Hillman met recently at the intersection of possibility and good ideas, and found themselves taking a walk along the garden path.

Doherty-Peck, who heads Montville's Social Services department and the Montville Senior Center, and Hillman, vice chairman of the Town Council, both had the idea of a community garden.

Together, with help from donors, volunteers and town employees, they've made the idea a reality.

Hillman, who volunteers at the Old Lyme Food bank, and is a lifelong gardener, had become intrigued with the idea of a community garden as an addendum to the food bank. Old Lyme's community garden supplies the food bank with fresh vegetables all summer, she says - 12 to 15 banana boxes full of food a week.

Doherty-Peck says the seniors had been talking about starting a vegetable garden, as well. And she was interested in the idea of fresh produce for Montville's social services.

And so the idea took shape. David Fairman of The New London Group donated the lumber for six raised beds, and dozens of plants to put in them. The compost came from the town's transfer station. The New London Group is donating cisterns later in the week, and the Montville Department of Public Works has worked on the gutters on town hall so that they will feed rain water into the cisterns, for watering the gardens.

The gardens are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost is $10 a year, plus a quarter of the harvest. That quarter-harvest will go to social services, to supplement the canned and nonperishable items the food bank supplies to citizens in need.

Volunteers are needed to help fill the beds; show up at the community garden this morning if you would like to help. Contact Doherty-Peck at (860) 848-8820 or (860) 848-0422 if you'd like to rent a bed.