Fairlawn Community Garden to See Improvements in 2012

If you ask Fairlawn Parks and Recreation Director Laurie Beisecker the question, “How does your garden grow,” there’s a good chance she’d chuckle and sigh. But Beisecker would then optimistically explain that the Fairlawn Community Garden’s second season in 2012 will be much better.

Throughout the summer, dozens of area residents were like pioneers working their hardscrabble 20- by 20-foot plots at the community garden, which debuted last May at Fairlawn Park on Ridgewood Road.

The garden project was first proposed early this year, leaving little time to establish rules and regulations, to get it physically laid out, disked, tilled and the plots sold.

“So the process of amending the soil didn’t happen, but we knew it needed to get done. We sent out extensive emails saying, ‘This is the first year, here’s how it is,’” Beisecker said. “Surprisingly, people just jumped on it. We sold 72 of the (96) plots and a lot of people bought doubles.”

It was a tough year for gardening, and not just because of soil issues, said Mayor William Roth.

“People really stuck it out through a horrible weather season,” he said. “We enjoy making the service available for people … The city’s going to amend the soil for next season.”

The garden was set up in a grid that contained 40- by 40-foot squares, each composed of four individual plots. The large squares were separated by five-foot walkways, the width determined by the size of city mowers used at the park.

Gardeners got to choose their plots on a first-come, first-served basis. Bessemer Farms Ltd. of Copley donated time and a truck to disk the soil. City employees also tilled each plot several times. The city provided a water supply, but each gardener had to provide everything else for their plot.

Beisecker said plots that weren’t sold were used by the city to plant sunflowers and pumpkins – neither of which grew. “We took the worst of the worst spots,” she said. “In a couple of places we saw clear deer (hoof) marks, so we know they were eating some of the plants.”

The parks director also bought a plot to share with her mother and a friend.

“It’s so funny because I had a plot personally, and we really didn’t get anything to grow. We planted eggplants, jalapenos, tomatoes, zucchini and peppers. The zucchini got eaten by deer or bunnies – I don’t know who. We only got one eggplant and it was pretty sad. Otherwise, we had a lot of mini veggies,” Beisecker said with a laugh.

“We, just like others, got frustrated. The ground was so dry and hard you could water and water and water and it was just miserable,” she added.

But she knows of at least one community gardener pleased with his first-year crop.  “We had one gentleman who came in and told us he grew 20 tomatoes and 15 peppers,” Beisecker said.

The parks director said rules and regulations from several other communities with similar gardening programs for residents were gathered and studied to create Fairlawn’s version. “We’ve dealt a lot with Twinsburg, which has an awesome community garden that’s open year round,” she explained.

Fairlawn’s regulations were recently altered slightly and converted to ordinance form; the document will have its third reading by City Council on Dec. 5. The only two changes made were to swap year-specific plot availability dates for the phrase “spring through the fall” and to insert a new rule specifying that “no refunds will be given after two weeks prior to garden opening date each year.”

“Only three people asked for refunds, and one of them was an older lady who couldn’t dig in the soil. It was like digging in cement,” Beisecker explained.

A couple of those refunds were requested more than halfway through the growing season, which is why the regulations now include the clause regarding a refund cut-off date. “Most people weren’t upset or angry. They understood that it’s a first-year community garden,” she said.

Numerous city officials are now brainstorming cost-effective ways of improving the soil for the 2012 growing season because they know there’s strong interest in the community garden concept.

“We sent out an email at the end of this season giving people the opportunity to renew their existing plots for next year and we got seven responses right away. That’s a huge vote of confidence,” Beisecker said. “Ideally, I think it will take three five years before we’re really, really happy with it. It will be good soil and good conditions.”

Returning gardeners can renew now through the start of open registration, which begins Feb. 20 for city residents and March 7 for non-residents. Cost per 20- by 20-foot plot is $20 for city residents age 60 and over, $25 for other city residents and $30 for non-residents. Click this link to register.