Water for all community garden sites - Spring 1981

 BACG History Post #34

Larry Sommers achieved a key goal during his second year of coordinating community gardens in Burlington and surrounding towns. For the first time, every Gardens for All site had access to a water system. 

Fees remained at $10 for a 25 x 30 ft. garden plot. The fee included mulch and a summer newsletter. Registration was centralized through Gardens for All, rather than having prospective and returning gardeners calling the volunteer site coordinators.

Lynn Ocone and Larry Sommers of Gardens for All at work in the Champlain School community garden, summer 1981.

The garden site was located near the bus barns behind the Champlain Elementary School. Access to the community garden was from Shelburne Street.

Ocone and Sommers were hired by Gardens for All in 1979 to coordinate community and youth garden programs.

Gardening with Burlington Seniors - Summer 1980

 BACG History Post #33

The Cathedral Square Senior Housing Project was built in 1977 in downtown Burlington. A thriving Gardens for All community garden had previously been located at the site during 1974 and 1975. 

Megan Humphrey earned a BS degree from the University of Vermont in social work, with a concentration in gerontology. 

Humphrey was hired by Cathedral Square as a Social Worker. Along with checking on residents, she assisted with activities at the new senior housing project. One of the programs was a partnership with Gardens for All to create wheelchair accessible gardens.

Humphrey was already friends with Charlie Nardozzi, a UVM rising senior who worked with Gardens for All during the summer of 1980. Bruce Butterfield of Gardens for All provided technical support for the project. On Thursday evenings, either Nardozzi or Butterfield provided instruction on gardening techniques.

"Putting in gardens was a wonderful and satisfying project," said Humphrey. "Residents were thrilled to be able to have garden space at their new home. Charlie and Bruce were patient, knowledgeable, and we all learned a lot from them. I remember Kathleen Jamison well. She was wheelchair-bound, very enthusiastic and smart, and appreciated having container gardens that she could reach."

Author's note: Megan Humphrey spent her career working with seniors in Burlington. She is the founder and executive director of HANDS (Helping and Nurturing Diverse Seniors).

Images of Burlington's community gardens - 1980

 BACG History Post #32

The Baird Community Garden was accessible from Pine Street and Home Avenue. The shopping plaza off Shelburne Street is visible in the background. 

The Baird site was one the original community gardens established by Tommy Thompson in 1973. Thirty years earlier, the site was a WWII Victory Garden.

Troy-bilt rototillers are shown preparing the Baird garden plots for planting.

The Medical Center Community Garden is located at the corner of East Avenue and Pearl Street, adjacent to the Vermont Department of Health. 

The garden site, established in 1973/1974, is the oldest continually operating community garden in Burlington.

Tommy Thompson of Gardens for All, founder of the community garden program, is shown raking a garden plot at the Intervale Community Garden, established in 1980.

Thompson was instrumental in negotiating the lease for the community garden site with the Burlington Electric Department.   

Gardens for All broadens its outreach - 1980

BACG History Post #31

In 1980, Gardens for All turned its attention to membership and outreach. GFA staff members developed gardening programs for senior citizens and people with disabilities, school children, and inmates at correctional centers. New program ideas were tested at community gardening sites in and around Burlington. 

Will Raap was hired by Gardens for All in 1980. He moved to Burlington from California after earning a BA degree in economics at UC Davis and a Master's degree in business and urban planning at UC Berkely. Raap oversaw outreach programs and conducted a campaign resulting in 15,000 paid members.

In a Burlington Free Press article published on August 17, 1980, Raap said that the Garden Way Company was providing 60 to 70% of the funding for Gardens for All. The goal was for Gardens for All to become self-supporting as it transitioned from local to national programming. 

 

With an eye to global food challenges, Tommy Thompson continued his focus on developing community gardens in the Third World. Bruce Butterfield provided support for the garden program at the Chittenden Community Correctional Center and a retirement garden at the Cathedral Square senior citizens housing project. GFA staffers also worked with teachers at the Essex Junction Educational Center to develop courses centered around garden-based learning.

Author's note: JoAnne Dennee came to Vermont in 1980 with her husband Larry Sommers, who worked for Gardens for All. Dennee and Sommers were the first coordinators of the Intervale Community Garden.

Dennee graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a BS degree in psychology and education. She has worked as an educator for over 40 years. Dennee is the author of a trilogy of curriculum guides for outdoor learning titled:  In the Three Sisters Garden, Exploring the Secrets of the Meadow-Thicket, and Exploring the Forest with Grandfather Tree.

A new garden coordinator with new ideas - 1980

 BACG History Post #30

Larry Sommers graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in psychology and business. During the mid 1970s, he oversaw community garden development in a six-county region of New York's Hudson Valley. The program grew from one community garden to sixty gardens in six years. He became a skilled organizer helping communities to build alternative food systems.

In the summer of 1979, Sommers and his wife JoAnne Dennee traveled to Vermont to attend the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) Conference in Lyndonville. Along the way, the couple stopped at the Gardens for All headquarters in Burlington to say hello. They left a positive impression during the social visit with the GFA staff.

 "I got a call out of the blue in September," said Sommers. "Gardens for All offered to fly me from Poughkeepsie to Burlington for an interview. The president, Jack Robinson, picked me up at the airport in a Mercedez Benz."

Robinson shared with Sommers that a major position was opening with Gardens for All. The founding director, Tommy Thompson, was moving to part-time. Sommers was offered the position of community garden coordinator for Burlington and surrounding towns. He would overlap with Thompson, who was focusing on national and international community garden development.

Sommers' first priority focused on strengthening the eleven remaining Gardens for All sites. He developed a three-year plan for the community gardens to become a community-supported effort.

In a March 6, 1980 Burlington Free Press article, Sommers said: 

"In the past, I don't think that the Burlington community garden system has been a city system. One of our major goals in the beginning of the '80s is to locate and dedicate permanent community garden sites in the Burlington area."

The strength of community partnerships was reflected in Sommers' approach. He worked with Burlington High School shop students to produce signs and stakes for the gardens. Chittenden Community Correctional Center residents constructed bulletin boards. Improving the appearance of the garden sites was key to boosting community spirit. "I like to look at community gardens as parks," he said.

When Sommers took over coordination of the community garden program, most of the garden sites lacked access to water. Gardeners relied on rainfall and hauled water in the trunks of their cars. Sommers worked to establish water systems at the sites and to support the volunteer site coordinators. 

Declining soil fertility had become an issue at some of the older community garden sites. Sommers introduced the idea of setting up composting at garden sites and running composting workshops for gardeners. He worked with the University of Vermont to test the soil at garden sites and develop soil improvement plans.

Sommers led by example. He and his wife JoAnne Dennee served as coordinators for the new community garden site in the Intervale, which began in 1980 with 20 plots. Community garden participants were encouraged to form planning committees to assess the needs at the garden sites and to take responsibility for working together to meet those needs.

Sommers continued the Gardens for All tradition of vegetable gardening classes for community gardeners. Dick Raymond served as the presenter for a free class held at Fletcher Free Library in May, 1980

Following the Burlington example - 1979

BACG History Post #29

Tommy Thompson was not one to let grass grow under his feet. After seven years of community garden organizing in Vermont and across the United States, he was ready for a new challenge.

Funded by a grant from a U.S. foundation, Thompson set off for the Caribbean on December 3, 1979. He was slated to return to the U.S. on December 20. 

His purpose was to help the islanders of Antigua to establish community gardens on six acres of land obtained from the government. The grant was based on the new gardens being in production by the end of December. 

The pilot project was designed to boost nutrition and self-sufficiency, and to serve as a model for other community garden projects in the Caribbean and Central America.

Developed in partnership with the Caribbean Council, this was the first international venture for Gardens for All. As he had done from the beginnings of Gardens for All, Thompson was willing to lead the way.