Grow It Green Morristown has big plans for the Early Street Community Garden.
A $200,000 capital campaign will shift into gear on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, at the corner of South and DeHart streets.
From 1 pm to 9 pm you can stop by this makeshift information center and learn about the nonprofit’s goal of transforming the popular garden into a national model of innovative urban design.
Plans call for:
…an apiary for safely viewing the activity of honeybee hives; an ADA compliant walking-path with a solar operated gate; a native plant rain garden with interpretive signage, enabling visitors to learn about natural storm water filtration methods; a gathering pavilion and rain water harvesting system; public parklet; a composting center; a public bicycle repair station; and 94 garden beds (including raised beds for those with limited mobility).
More than $2 million in public and private funds was raised last year to purchase the nearly one-acre garden tract, preserving it from commercial- and residential development.
Grow It Green said the garden opened in 2009 as
…a temporary garden to plant an idea: That a looming, massive redevelopment project slated for the neighborhood needed to incorporate open space in its design. Our small start-up organization invested what we could to create the garden, utilizing just half the property. As the garden grew, so did the community’s awareness of the vital need for open space in the Town. Our waiting list for garden plots swelled to 75 families.
Grow It Green aims to take a bite out of that waiting list by doubling the number of plots.
Several sponsorship levels are being offered by the organization:
- $40,000: Commemorate the Garden
- $30,000: Fund the Parklet, Pavilion, or Rain Garden
- $20,000: Fund the Boardwalk, Walking Path, or Apiary
- $10,000: Fund the Bike Station (secured), Composting Toilet, or Greenhouse
- $1,500: Plant a Tree with a Plaque
- $250: Commemorated in Leaves on the Giving Tree