Manhattan Community Gardens provide outlet for growing food, connection, unwinding

In exchange for a plot, gardeners also are expected to commit a few hours doing general maintenance work that benefit the sites as a whole.

By Savannah Rattanavong Srattanavong
The Mercury
Apr 10, 2021

Excerpt:

Erin Bishop, secretary of the garden board, said being able to come out and work on her garden still felt like a way to relate to others in a time when personal connection was hard to come by. Since gardening doesn’t necessitate being physically close to others, she could chat with her plot neighbors.

“I was so thankful I could garden,” Bishop said. “I was in my garden thinking, ‘How could I mentally survive this last year without my garden?’ … It was like a chance to feel like I had a community going on in the middle of (the early days of the) pandemic where you just didn’t know; it was so new and scary.”

She said many people are open to helping others with gardening tips, and she’s learned a lot from her neighbors over the years. In addition, they often leave behind extra seeds, equipment or vegetables for others.

The board this year also began providing seminars and training sessions on how to plant and care for certain crops and plants, which have been helpful for people, Marti and Zoller said.

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