Lettuce celebrate! Morris Township’s community garden turns 10

By Kristen Neymarc

If you had to pick someone to run a community garden, you couldn’t do much better than a guy named Gardner.

Luckily, Morris Township has one. Ned Gardner has been part of the Ted Largman Community Garden (TLCG) almost since the first shovel hit the dirt, first as volunteer coordinator and now as its volunteer manager.

This year, the garden — named for a late resident who volunteered on the Township environmental commission for a half century — celebrates its 10th anniversary. When Morristown Green covered it shortly after its founding in 2016, residents were being invited to reserve the first plots. A decade later, this little-known corner of Morris Township has become a remarkable community success story.

Many area residents know Morristown’s Early Street Community Garden, founded in 2009 by Grow It Green Morristown. Its younger cousin at ValleVue Preserve is less familiar, despite being three times as large.

Spread across three acres of preserved farmland on Picatinny Road and next to the rolling hills of St. Mary’s Abbey, the Ted Largman Community Garden has approximately 125 plots, ranging from 32-square-foot starter beds to 450-square-foot plots. It also boasts a native plant garden, seed library, flower beds, and two beehives — guarded by electric fences ever since a bear with a sweet tooth paid a visit.

Some 160 gardeners tend the gardens with more residents hoping to get in.

GOOD THINGS GROW HERE

Like most gardeners, Mary Albright grows vegetables for her own table. One of the garden’s original members and current leadership team member, she entertains family and friends with stories of the 80 pounds of sweet potatoes she grows each year, from planting and harvesting to curing and storing them.

Albright also leads a team of Rutgers Master Gardeners who help identify pests, diseases and beneficial insects, using scientifically tested methods to keep gardens healthy. Gardner is also a Rutgers Master Gardener, while Mary Olin leads the garden’s Pest Patrol, helping members spot problems before they spread.

Alice So, who has gardened there with her husband, Roger, since 2017, joined the Pest Patrol despite her initial fear of insects. “I’ve learned so much about pests, a subject that I had no interest in before. I now look forward to hunting down those pests!” she said.

Not everything grown at the Ted Largman Community Garden goes home with the gardeners. Many share their harvest with the Interfaith Food Pantry Network, while a separate “Giving Garden” grows vegetables exclusively for donation.

Together, those contributions have added up to an impressive harvest: Five tons of fresh produce over the past decade, including nearly 1,500 pounds last year alone, according to the pantry network’s executive director, Carolyn Lake.

“The support that we get from the local gardeners, it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Lake, adding that families receiving the vegetables understand the generosity and hard work behind the donations.

A LITTLE MONEY, A LOT OF MUSCLE

What’s remarkable is how much the garden accomplishes with relatively little public money. “It really is something that has such a big impact on the community, but really doesn’t receive that much funding from the Township,” said Morris Township Recreation Supervisor Russell Surace.

Morris Township provides water, compost, wood chips, mowing, fence repairs, a portable toilet and other infrastructure. Gardeners do the rest, from tending their own plots to maintaining common areas and growing, collecting and delivering vegetables for the food pantry.

“They’re pretty self-sufficient, the garden members,” Surace added. One Township grounds worker said he looks forward to mowing there every week, just for the beauty of the place.

Sorry, Morristown residents. Unlike its Early Street cousin, which welcomes residents and nonresidents alike, the Ted Largman Community Garden is open only to Morris Township residents.

‘EVERYBODY’S HAPPY PLACE’

Gardner likes to think of the garden’s 15 blocks as little neighborhoods, where gardeners water one another’s plots when someone is away and lend a hand when someone is sick or injured. Each block has its own captain who keeps an eye on the plots and stays in touch with the gardeners.

Gardner’s vision goes beyond growing vegetables. “It should be a place to get to know your neighbors,” he said, particularly people from different backgrounds who might otherwise never meet.  And it has worked for him. “I’ve made so many very close friends that I never would have bumped into,” he said.

Albright, who joined for the sunshine her backyard lacked, discovered the same social attraction. “I actually now prefer to garden at the community garden over gardening at home,” she said.

But even the friendliest neighborhoods need a sheriff, and that’s Gardner’s least favorite part of the job. He must enforce the rules, deal with neglected plots and occasionally talk to gardeners who aren’t meeting their commitments.

“No one likes telling somebody that you got to leave the garden,” he said.

And those commitments are considerable. Two new gardeners who recently got off the waiting list, put it this way: “We work, water, weed, weed, water and work some more. You need to be there. Often.”

They also pointed out that gardeners must attend orientation meetings and contribute volunteer hours each season. They get some help with the challenges of growing organically, including regular reports on pests, plant diseases and beneficial insects from Rutgers Master Gardeners.

Yet for John Osipuk, the garden’s volunteer coordinator, all that work has its rewards. “It’s everybody’s happy place. It’s everybody’s place of serenity. We call it cheap therapy. It’s a lot cheaper than going to a therapist.”

WANT TO DIG IN? HERE’S THE DIRT.

Dreaming of your own patch of paradise? Morris Township residents interested in a garden plot are encouraged to join the waiting list now, ahead of registration for the next growing season, which opens early in the new year.

Annual plot fees listed by the Township range from $25 for a 10-by-10-foot plot to $65 for a 15-by-30-foot plot, with a midsize option at $45. Instructions on joining the waiting list and more information about the garden is here.

Gardeners must attend orientation, follow organic growing practices, maintain their plots and contribute volunteer hours to the community. Synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides are prohibited.

And if that sounds like too much work, there’s always the produce aisle at ShopRite.