From left: Community garden board members Kim Wickman, Grace Wintermyer, Sage Smiley and Valerie Massie, along with other volunteers, have been busy preparing the expanded garden. The garden is now open for community members looking to rent beds to grow their own plants.
The community garden features 18 low-lying beds and two tall-standing beds. Though most have been rented for the season, a couple are still available.
What started as the seed of an idea has germinated into a full-grown program to help the community get involved in gardening.
Over the past couple months, the Wrangell Community Garden board has been meeting, planning and organizing cleanup days. As such, the garden, located at the old Lions Ball Field at 1.5 Mile, is ready for gardeners looking to grow their own plants and produce.
Once overgrown with weeds, the site is now cleaned up, garden beds are set up and soil is piled up and ready to be shoveled in. Though the board is still waiting to obtain the new, larger-volume composter, a cold-compost box is available, all thanks to the work of volunteers.
"The new composter was built by Alex Rooney as his senior project," said Kim Wickman, board member. "The Forest Service helped a ton, helping us move and dismantle the old (compost) bed two weeks ago. There's been lots of volunteer effort in labor and supplies."
A foot deep of 4-inch rock was laid down for the approximately 60-foot-by-90-foot garden area, covered by three inches of smaller rock. Eighteen low-lying garden beds are organized in rows and two taller standing garden beds are available for people with mobility issues. Beds are available to rent for the season for $15 or $25, depending on the size chosen.
Grace Wintermyer, board treasurer, said when she moved to Wrangell five years ago she got involved in the community garden. At the time, those in charge were hoping to pass on the project to keep it going.
"There were bigger questions then about whether it would stay here (at the old Lions Ball Field) or if we were going to have to move the location completely," Wintermyer said. "I'm excited to see it has been able to stay and that we're actually putting down big infrastructure works and making it more of a permanent feature."
Wintermyer, who is a tour guide for Alaska Waters, earned a degree in agriculture and organic farming. She said it can be daunting for those just getting into gardening.
"Starting out ... is intimidating for new gardeners if it seems like there's a lot of work and a lot of questions still. People are hesitant to dig in," she said.
Sage Smiley, who built the group's website and set up its social media presence, reserved a garden bed herself in the hopes that she could continue the hobby she enjoyed in childhood.
"I grew up around gardening, either at community gardens or gardening with my mom, depending on where we were living," Smiley said. "In my adult life, I've lived in apartments or the desert of the Middle East. I'm a beginning gardener. I might completely fail, but I'm excited to have a chance to grow things."
Board member Valerie Massie said it's taken about two years to get the community garden ready for use.
"You can't tell how much has gone on," Massie said. "(Parks and Recreation Director) Kate Thomas has helped out a lot, even though she's stepping away. She's guided us through the red tape ... and how you do all that."
Wickman said they would like to partner with Parks and Rec to offer a free gardening program for kids.
"I used to work with a lot of kids, and it was amazing the amount of food they threw away," Wickman said. "I thought that if we could help them connect the dots with where the food was coming from, the amount of effort that it took for them to grow the food they ate, they might actually start consuming more (produce)."
To find out more about the community garden, visit bit.ly/wrggarden or email them at wrggarden@gmail.com. They can also be found on Instagram at wrggarden.
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