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Harbour Main community garden catching on with kids and adults alike

By Mark Squibb/March 3, 2022

The site of the old softball field in Harbour Main-Chapels Cove-Lakeview may no longer be home to little leaguers striking homeruns, but it is home to a whole new host of community activities, at the center of which is a bustling community garden.

Residents grow carrots, lettuce, onion and more in the 30 odd planter boxes that make up the garden.

Just a stone’s throw from the garden are rows of fruit-bearing trees, the number of which the garden committee hopes to double in the coming year.

Some years back, Sts. Peter and Paul Parish provided a hectare of land across from the cemetery for use as a garden and other farm steading activities. Last week, the town signed a long-term lease for the entire plot of land.

Angela Woodford served on the recreation committee for 20 years and currently acts as Parish Council Secretary. She said the farm steading area gives residents a reason to get together and enjoy the outdoors.

“When we put the first little community gardens boxes in, in no time they caught on,” said Woodford. “And you see the intergenerational use of these community boxes. You see grandparents, and children, and grandchildren there every single week. It’s a place for them to come together and walk along a trail or tend their garden or sit down and have a picnic. It’s a beautiful spot.”

As a former teacher, she said it’s especially heart-warming to watch children learn how to grow their very own vegetables.

“You see those little kids plant the seeds in the garden, and they know that every single week they’ve got to go down and water them, and they watch them grow,” said Woodford.  “Sometimes they take the carrots out and they don’t even wash them off, they just eat them as they are.”

The land will be home to a new compost digester, which will compost organic waste, thereby reducing the town’s costs of waste collection and producing a nutrient rich compost that can be sold later.

The Town worked closely with consulting firm Fundamental Inc., on the project.

“They were excellent,” said Mayor Mike Doyle. “They were really passionate about this work, and they provided us the insight that too often people look at environmental practices as a means to a good consciousness, and as ‘the right thing to do.’ But what they’ve manage to educate to this council, and this community, is that it’s more than the right thing to do — there’s money in this, and there’s savings in this. You can save your taxpayers money, you can put money back into the residents of the community, you can create jobs with this stuff.”

The foundation for a solar powered greenhouse near the garden has also been laid.

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