When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you some land behind a school, make a garden. At least that’s what the three women in charge of the Urban Farm believe.
Behind the Lafayette Learning Center on Hazel Street, there is a playground, a parking lot, a baseball field and now,
the product of hours of manual labor: A garden.
The Urban Farm, or the Teaching Garden, was created by Grow it Green Morristown, a non-profit organization founded a year and a half ago by Morristown residents Carolle Huber, Samantha Rothman, and Myra Bowie-McCready.
These three environmentalists hoped to create a healthy, united, and environmentally conscious community in Morristown through gardening.
Grow it Green Morristown also maintains the Early Street Community Garden, across from Morristown High School, where residents can pay $35 to rent an 8 foot- by- 16 foot gardening bed for the season.
Carolle Huber said, “We wanted to provide a common ground for people who wouldn’t normally meet, to meet. Even social events like potluck dinners and gardening classes happen at Early Street Garden.”
Although the area is a developmental site, the folks at Grow it Green have a two-year deal for the land.
“We are so happy with its success,” Huber said, “In just one year, the waiting list for a spot in the Garden has become so long that we had to limit it to only Morristown and Morris Township residents.”
The Early Street Garden began a year ago, but the Urban Farm at Lafayette was planted only in May of this year. Already it contains a variety of vegetables and flowers including peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, corn, beans, and different herbs.
A full-time gardener tends to the garden during the week, and Huber, Rothman, Bowie-McCready and other volunteers work in the garden on the weekends.
The Urban Farm donates and sells its produce, and last week donated 200 pounds of vegetables to the Interfaith Food Pantry.
The Community Soup Kitchen also purchases from the garden, and the Urban Farm “store” is open to anyone to buy vegetables for low prices.
It gets its second name, the “Teaching Garden,” because students from the Lafayette Learning Center, Normandy Park School and Hillcrest Elementary School spent lesson time in the garden during the school year.
On summer evenings, free classes are available at the Urban Farm, but last Thursday’s class was special.
It was given by Samantha Rothman on “Integrated Pest Management,” and the visitors also took part in a ladybug release.
Rothman gave a brief history on pesticides: Leftover chemicals from World War II were used to create insecticides and pesticides for farming, and agriculture was no longer a small-scale business.
Farmers soon began planning schedules for when these chemicals would be applied. After many years it was discovered that pesticides cause harm to human health during application, to plants during their growing stages, and to the agricultural community during rainy seasons, as chemicals seeped into the groundwater.
Even worse, insects, which can reproduce within days, quickly were adapting to the insecticides and becoming immune to their effects.
“Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is really about being in touch with your garden before it is even planted,” Rothman said. “Your plants should be healthy from the get-go, and there are other methods, besides using chemicals, to prevent pests in your garden.”
One of these methods involves a layout plan, or putting families of vegetables and herbs together.
In the Urban Farm, broccoli, kale, and collards are planted near each other because they have similar nutrient requirements.
Companion planting is another strategy. In the garden, tomatoes and basil are planted next to each other, as the scent of the basil deters bugs from approaching the tomatoes.
Marigolds are also planted in a ring around certain vegetables because of their ability to naturally repel rabbits.
The last method discussed was trap planting. Trap planting simply means planting an abundance of an unimportant plant to distract pests, while an important plant grows near it.
Rothman also mentioned the value of observing the activity in your garden. When she noticed aphids eating certain plants in the garden, she applied a soap solution to get rid of them.
Because ladybugs eat aphids, the ladies at the Urban Farm ordered 1,200 ladybugs to be mailed to the garden. The ladybugs were mailed from a ladybug farm all the way in Colorado in a small postal box. Until the day of the class, Rothman kept the bugs in the box and fed them raisins soaked in water.
After Rothman’s class, each participant received a handful of ladybugs to set down on the pumpkin plant. The bed was then covered with a thin white “blanket.” This way, the ladybugs will be comfortable laying eggs in the garden, and the aphid problem will be under control.
Need some tips on starting your own garden? Visit the Urban Farm at Lafayette for free classes.
Need a deer-free space to practice what you’ve learned? Visit the Early Street Community Garden to start planting.
Need vegetables or flowers because you’ve given up patience with your own? Go back to the Urban Farm at Lafayette to purchase some for low prices.
In all seriousness though, take a stab at a small garden this season, and you’ll be surprised at how rewarding it can be.
You know what they always say: You only have to tickle the earth a bit with some seeds, and it’ll laugh up a whole garden. Join Grow it Green Morristown as it plants smiles, grows friendships, and harvests a new community.
