When a huge community garden inn New Hampshire was threatened, the volunteers took over
Cilley said the gardens bring in about $3,000 a year from fees.
By David Brooks
Concord Monitor staff
Nov 11, 2023
Excerpt:
One of the biggest farms in the Concord area, a site that annually produces tons of vegetables, fruits and flowers, changed hands this year but even fans of local agriculture probably didn’t hear about it.
That’s because it is not exactly a farm. It’s a garden, but a super-sized one.
The 10-acre site within the Russell-Shea State Forest in west Concord has been home to a huge community garden for decades, renting out 176 different garden plots, some as big as 50 feet by 50 feet, to any New Hampshire resident for a small fee. It’s the largest community garden in the state and might be the largest in New England, and has become something of a community.
“There are people who literally spend a good portion of their day here, tending their garden, chatting with other gardeners,” said Emily Hayes, a land surveyor technician with the Division of Forest and Lands.
“We have people who live in apartments who get a plot, and this is their yard,” said Brad Cilley.
Until this year the Division of Forest and Lands ran the operation, next to CenterPoint Church on a dirt road that connects Clinton Street and Iron Works Road, but issues with funding and staff meant it couldn’t continue. The gardeners were told they had to figure something out or the operation would shut down.
