BACG History Post #43
After ten years coordinating community gardens, Gardens for All passed its local garden torch to a new nonprofit organization.The formation of Burlington Area Community Gardens was announced in a Burlington Free Press article published on April 4, 1983.
Larry Sommers of Gardens for All emphasized that BACG would utilize the same garden sites and focus on development of permanent sites.
A fund was established in memory of Tommy Thompson, the founder of Gardens for All. Thompson died on March 22, 1983. The fund was dedicated to preserving and expanding permanent community garden sites and to protecting the sites from development.
Don Miller became BACG's new program director. He was based at the Gardens for All headquarters at 180 Flynn Avenue in Burlington.
The registration fee remained at $15 plus a $5 cleanup deposit. Three hundred community garden plots were available for the 1983 season at ten different BACG sites.
A Spring Festival was planned at Fletcher Free Library to distribute free seeds, share educational information, and sign up gardeners.
Workshops co-sponsored by the Church Street Center and BACG were held at the Intervale Community Garden site. (see examples below)
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