A community garden grows

Barryville Girl Scout plants the seeds for ‘Golden Garden Composting’

By SANDY LONG

BARRYVILLE, NY — When her long-term goals are met roughly a decade from now, Christina Watts may return to Barryville as an equine veterinarian. Meanwhile, she is busier than a bee, organizing a community-based project that will earn her the Girls Scouts Gold Award and leave her community the legacy of a special garden that will grow for many years near the Barryville United Methodist Church.

In trying to decide on a project, Watts noted, “I wanted to do something that would last, and I like gardens and being outdoors.”

The project, Golden Garden Composting, requires more than 65 hours of volunteer work, and Watts has already surpassed that without even turning the first shovel of earth. It must also incorporate members of the community, so Watts has garnered the support of various individuals and recently conducted a kickoff/training session, during which participants learned about the basic principles of composting and signed up to participate in the community garden.

Watts began by addressing the towns of Highland and Lumberland at their town meetings, where she displayed a sample of the 50 recycled five-gallon composting bins that she crafted with assistance from her father. She attended other community meetings and has received generous financial contributions to continue the project.

The ambitious teen is being advised in the project by fellow community member and New York City gardener Jim Russell, who is helping her to plan the layout and decide what to plant.

Watts also recruited John Back, a volunteer with the Highland Renaissance community beautification group, to speak with participants about effective methods for composting. Back displayed samples of good composting materials, including the very important “brown material”—mulched leaves and twigs—and the finished product.

“This is something everybody should do,” said Back. “It reduces what we send to the landfill, it makes great use of natural resources and you can’t buy a better growing medium than your own compost because you know what’s in it and where it came from.”

The 70-by-20-foot plot will feature a specially designed layout that incorporates a picnic area to encourage interaction. Moreover, it will include space for the all-important composting process. Participants can bring compostable materials from home or bring their finished compost to the site for use in the garden, according to Watts.

Those who contribute volunteer hours to the garden will receive an equivalent amount of fresh vegetables and herbs. Anything extra will be donated to a local food pantry, said Watts.

The raised beds will be installed and planting is slated to occur in May 2009. Meanwhile, Watts’s 14-year-old brother Matthew will keep busy by installing the garden’s fencing as a Boy Scout project. Eventually, Watts will hand off the project to the community, where she hopes its management will be taken over by various community organizations such as the church and the chamber of commerce.

Watts has already served her community well as an intern for the Highland Renaissance, where she staffed the information station in Barryville and assisted with planting projects at the gazebo and traffic island.

Carol Roig, president of Highland Renaissance, attended Watts’s recent presentation and commented, “It was a great event, and as always we are so impressed with Christina’s dedication and hard work.”

Visit goldengardencomposting.info for more information.