The North Hill Community Garden, is in the midst of its most productive year, as all 41 garden plots are producing an abundance of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers tended by Stillwater residents.

Before 2012, the space in the North Hill neighborhood was just a vacant lot – once home to a basketball court. And the space on the corner of North Martha Street and Aspen Street West in Stillwater, was known as an eyesore.

Jack Roddy, of Stillwater, saw potential in the empty lot, and decided to do something about it. With a small band of community activists, Roddy worked with the city to create a space where neighbors could bond over one common thing: gardening.

“We have 41 plots, so we have 41 groups (single people, couples, and families) all taking care of their gardens this year,” Roddy said. “This is the best the garden has ever looked. We have 150 people on our email list and many of those people helped get the garden started or had a plot at one time and still want to keep up with what is happening at the garden.”

The garden, now overflowing with berry patches, towering sunflowers, root vegetables, herb and hundreds of other growing things, is largely tended by 10 volunteers who help maintain the space. Volunteers do help out by weeding the walking paths, sending out newsletters and emails, and managing funds.

Volunteer Victoria Styrbicki has used the garden as a way to find belonging in the city.

“I’m new to Stillwater, relatively,” Styrbicki said, “and so it’s really exciting to join a community garden and find new people to know and become acquainted with through this activity, which I like to do. I think that’s a really beneficial part of being in the garden – as well as having a lot of really fresh vegetables.”

Gardening is an activity that takes patience and hard work. There are rules for the people who purchase garden plots for the summer.

Weeding is especially an issue. If weeds aren’t taken care of in one garden plot, they could spread to the other plots. The shared responsibility of nurturing growth helps brings people together.

Dorie Bliss, another volunteer, noted the shared experience brings Stillwater residents together.

“Personally, I think the example of a community garden is something that adds to the whole sense of a city that is trying to be a community,” Bliss said.

Another key element of the garden is that a gardener has an abundance of produce, the excess will get shared.

Much of the food that grows in the garden ends up on local food shelves.

“It’s not just for the benefit of the individual plot owners,” Bliss said.

With the rising interest and success of the garden this summer, the team of volunteers are looking forward to the future of the North Hill Garden.

Tom Styrbicki, Victoria’s husband, said the group may expand.

“If the demand stays high here,” he said,” I’d like to see us looking at an additional piece of land somewhere.”

Tom Styrbicki, believes that having another community garden in the area would double the benefits to the community and teach a whole new neighborhood about gardening.

“I feel like we’ve learned enough that we could provide a model now,” Bliss said.

Until then, the team of volunteers are focused on maintaining the quality of the North Hill Garden.

They plan on replacing the old wood plots and garden beds to prevent rotting wood, and continuing to raise interest in their lush garden space.

Load comments