Some of you probably know that the Armstrong Court Community Organic Garden just celebrated its 5th Anniversary. You may even know some of our short history. What you may not know is that there had been a thriving garden at the same location dating back to 1964—that's 50 years ago. That garden was the brain-child of Mrs. John Heffron of the Hortulus Garden Club, along with the then-director of the Greenwich Housing Authority, Richard Hubert, with horticultural support from James McArdle, Sr., of McArdle-MacMillen Nursery. Hortulus helped the gardeners form a garden club and the Greenwich Time reported that, "the gardens are an invaluable source of pride and relaxation and a means of maintaining their cultural heritage".
Much of the history of the original garden was documented by the Greenwich Time. Three of the original Armstrong Court gardeners and members of the garden club, Jessie Ramnath, Christina David and Philip Foster are still gardening with us today. Jessie and Christina kept all of those cherished newspaper clippings from the many years of Greenwich Time reporting on that garden, and I have scanned and cataloged all of them. Back then, as now, they had gardeners from many countries who were growing the familiar and some not-so-familiar plants that hailed from their homelands. Their garden club not only held annual gardening competitions with engraved silver bowl prizes provided by Hortulus Garden Club, but also started their own small fund to help neighbors in need at Armstrong Court. The garden thrived into the mid-1980s.
The stories from that former garden and from community gardens all over the country, dating back several decades—even as far back as the Victory Gardens of the World War I & II era—are as fresh now as they were then. There was even once a large victory garden on what is now the site of the Greenwich Library parking lot. These gardens were about people working together for a common goal. The communities that they built with their hands and their hearts helped to connect them to each other, to a common cause and also to the natural world. The author, Michael Pollan, puts it this way, "Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well."
When our small group of volunteers arrived at Armstrong Court in April 2009 to revive the old garden space behind Armstrong Court, we didn't know the history of the garden. But nonetheless as we began to reclaim the land, we knew we were onto something really significant. Assisted by residents, our families, members of the local police department, neighbors, students and members of several environmental organizations in Greenwich, we set out across the first of two footbridges and hacking our way into the garden. We started at one end of the garden and by mid-May, we finally made it to the other end—500 feet from where we started - 15,000 square feet of mud and possibility. We felt like pioneers taming uncharted territory even though we knew we were not the first nor were the former members of the preceeding garden. Undoubtedly, there were settlers long ago using this land to provide for their families too—but that's another story. Just as excited as those former Armstrong Court gardeners must have felt when they started, we were delighted beyond measure to begin to produce lots of fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers. We were indeed, the Armstrong Court Community Organic Garden.
So it is in this tradition of growing food that nourishes and binds us, that we are proud to celebrate this 5th year of community gardening here in our town, and to add something to the already rich history that exists here. In fact, our success has lead us to expand our reach, by planning to build our second community garden on Bible Street in Cos Cob. This garden will be a public/private partnership with the Town of Greenwich and we expect to be open in spring of 2014. But we are going to need everyone's participation to make it successful. One of the ways that residents can help is to donate to our efforts through our PATCHWORKS fundraising project during the month of July. You can find us on the local PATCH or go the this link: greenwich.patch.com/patchworks/pattysechi/coscobcommunitygarden. Residents can also volunteer to help with the actual building the garden by contacting Patty Sechi, Chair of Greenwich Community Gardens at: psechi@gmail.com.
