Community garden blooms hope, peace for residents during pandemic

By PATRICK ADRIAN
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CHARLESTOWN — A new community garden in Charlestown — the result of a two-month project that officially opened on Saturday — is a perfect illustration of how a local community can still come together, despite statewide closures and social distancing.

Alissa Bascom, 39, of Charlestown, said that she first had the idea to start a community garden in town 15 years ago, but other life responsibilities and a lack of networking experience held her vision at bay.

Earlier this year, the idea resurfaced, Bascom said. Between an increasing number of families using the town’s food shelf and the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic spurring concerns about grocery supplies, Bascom felt that providing more people a means to growing food was essential.

“Not knowing what the future’s going to hold was driving people back to some of those homesteading roots, where we can take care of ourselves.”

Starting a community garden gives residents who lack land “a first step toward helping themselves,” Bascom said.

The project was arguably a textbook-definition of “a community effort,” taking just two months to complete.

Bascom developed the idea in late March with her uncle, Vic St. Pierre, from Charlestown, also expressed interest in a community garden. The Charlestown Economic Development Association (CEDA), a nonprofit development group, freely offered use of their commercial land on Fling Road for the garden. The Rotary Foundation of Charlestown took over the project’s development, contributing a donation and soliciting other resources. The Claremont Savings Bank donated $250 from its Community-Giving Fund and the Greater Sullivan County Public Health Network donated $1,483 toward a water system. St. Pierre Inc., a Charlestown construction and landscaping supplier, donated the loam and compost, weed-blocking fabric and filling equipment. Woodell & Daughters Forest Products in Langdon donated the boards to build the raised beds.

Even the Charlestown Fire Department is contributing to the project, Bascom said. When the project developers learned that building a connecting water line to the garden, Fire Chief Charlie Baraly secured a temporary water tank, which the fire department will fill as needed. Bascom said a larger tank will likely be purchased in the future, but the current tank will serve well in the time being.

Bascom said that there is no charge to any Charlestown resident who wants to use the garden.

To illustrate the speed, collaboration and effort in which this garden came together, Bascom said it took only nine days to construct. The land agreement was finalized with CEDA on Thursday, May 14, and the first residents began planting in their boxes Saturday, May 23.

“I am blown away by the support this has gotten,” Bascom said. “Charlestown really amazed me in their fortitude and perseverance right now. They know that things are changing and they are going to make the effort. It’s really incredible and the beginning of a lot of good things.”

Any question Bascom had at the onset regarding the interest in a community garden has been answered as all 28 garden beds have been claimed, with other residents adding their names to a waiting list.

Most of the raised beds are eight feet by four feet, with the smallest boxes measuring four feet by four feet. Bascom said that some residents are sharing seeds and plants. All but about four or five boxes have plants and signs already, and the remaining users plan to access theirs this weekend.

The garden was built to be portable, in the event that CEDA someday sells the land for development, Bascom said.

Moving to a location is always a possibility, as is expansion or creating new gardens, according to Bascom.

“I am hoping this is the first of many,” she said. “There’s a woman in Alstead interested in one. Maybe next year I’ll go and help her put one out there. [This project] was so easy and so smooth, I think every town should have one.”