(Photo via Unsplash).
Local sustainability and agriculture advocates are repurposing a plot of land to open the newest community garden in Cortland County.
“We are a non-traditional community garden,” said Bryn Carr, a founder of the garden. “We are much more of an educational space and a space that’s open to the public. We’re not modeled in the traditional way where you rent a bed, and that’s your bed that you own and you plant it.”
Instead, Carr said, their model has several sections of the garden, which induce a free farm to provide for people dealing with food insecurity.
“We are going to be working with food pantries, but also people in the local community can come pick what they’d like to,” Carr said.
A rendering of the Cortland Community Learning Garden, which is slated to be available to the public in May. (Photo via the City of Cortland).
The garden will also have an educational space.
“That’s going to have classes running there regularly about everything, from composting to cooking the food, to how to grow and maintain a garden at home,” she said. “There’ll also be a children’s area so that people of all ages are welcome. There the kids can dig in the dirt. There will be a mud kitchen and other fun things like that. where the kids can dig in the dirt. There’s a mud kitchen, fun things like that.”
The garden will also feature a display area, which will showcase plants and produce under a specific motif.
“Those will have permanent displays about things like best plants for pollinators, or what vegetables to grow at different seasons, or wild edibles in our community,” Carr said.
The project was awarded a special-use permit Monday night by the Cortland Planning Commission. The County Planning Board also approved the garden’s site plan. There are also two grants from the Bertini Family Foundation and the Cortland Bright Ideas grant put on by the Central New York Community Foundation.
“We received a grant through Cortland Bright Ideas specifically for our composting program at the garden,” Carr said. “We’re going to be composting and creating our own soil for the property, as well as teaching people how to make their own compost with their food scraps at home.”
Interested residents may contact [email protected] for more information on monthly updates on the community garden, as well as volunteering opportunities.
