Community gardens and tree planting - 1984

 BACG History Post #46

Burlington Area Community Gardens stood on its own in 1984. The fledgling nonprofit organization was overseen by a volunteer board of directors. 

BACG moved into a shared upstairs office space on Cherry Street at the corner with North Winooski Avenue.  Ben & Jerry's occupied the first floor of the building.  

BACG maintained seven community gardens in Burlington and one community garden in Winooski. A total of 349 plots were available for new and returning gardeners.

Craig Fuller was hired as BACG's part-time director. He took over the role from Don Miller, who remained on the BACG board. Fuller was an experienced community organizer from Texas. 

"My primary qualifications were that I was a gardener, I owned a truck, and I knew how to plow," said Fuller.

Classified ads were placed in the Burlington Free Press to attract new gardeners and solicit donations of materials.

In addition to his work directing BACG, Fuller (center left in photo below) served as volunteer coordinator for the City of Burlington's tree-planting program.

Intervale Community Garden Flourishes - 1983

 BACG History Post #45

In its fourth year, the Intervale Community Garden offered 65 garden plots, 25 ft x 30 ft. in dimensions. A Burlington Free Press story published on July 12, 1983 described the diversity of gardening styles and motivations.

"It is a place where the individualism of the gardeners seems to thrive as bountifully as their vegetables," wrote Free Press staff writer Leslie Brown. 

A tribute to Tommy Thompson - 1983

BACG History Post #44

Although Tommy Thompson's physical heart gave out on March 22, 1983, the heartbeat of his dedication to community gardening lived on. 

Colleagues remembered Tommy Thompson with a special tribute published in the May 1983 issue of the Gardens for All news magazine. 

Gardens for All established the Tommy Thompson Community Garden Fund in his memory. The fund's purpose was to create permanent and long term community garden sites through leases, easements, acquisition of property, and permanent improvements such as landscaping and fencing.

BACG becomes an independent nonprofit - 1983

 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)

The loss of a gardening pioneer - March, 1983

 BACG History Post #42

Tommy Thompson planned to end his career with Gardens for All on March 25, 1983. The previous year, he semi-retired from the nonprofit organization that he directed and worked for starting in January, 1973.

Thompson died during his last week of work, on Tuesday night March 22, 1983, at the age of 65.

Thompson was described by the Burlington Free Press as an international pioneer in the community garden movement, helping to make gardening and food self-sufficiency accessible to people throughout the world.

Thompson's funeral service was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Burlington. He was laid to rest in the family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Burlington.

 

Tommy Thompson's parting message - June 1982

 BACG History Post #41

Bryson H. "Tommy" Thompson was nearing the end of his time with Gardens for All. The organization's founding director devoted a decade to helping people establish community gardens.

On June 18, 1982, Thompson's parting message was published in the Burlington Free Press. He focused on the benefits of gardening and the need for land to provide gardeners with a place to grow.

Thompson described the irony of residents organizing to revitalize a rubble-strewn vacant lot in an urban neighborhood, then being dislocated from their community garden when property values rise.

The solution, Thompson reflected, was for enough people to personally witness a first-time gardener returning home with their first harvest, or a group of youngsters seeing plants bursting through the soil, when a week earlier they carefully planted tiny seeds. 

He ended with a hopeful vision: "Someday, when enough people see this joy, or experience it themselves, there just may be enough land for all."