Community Garden Sprouts in Meacham Park

Only a handful of people braved the heat Saturday afternoon to help build garden beds at Meacham Park's new community garden, but organizer Deb Lavender is optimistic that interest will pick up as the garden takes shape.

"I kind of have an 'if you build it, they will come' hope," Lavender said to Kirkwood resident Jill Gatcombe as they worked.

The garden is located on the 300 block of New York Street in the Meacham Park neighborhood of Kirkwood. Roy Schwer owns the lot, along with the house across the street where his mother lives, and agreed to let Lavender use the space for the garden. He stopped by Saturday afternoon to see how things were going.

Schwer said he has tried to use the space as a community garden before, but his efforts failed.

"Everybody wanted to take, but no one wanted to participate," he said.

Lavender said it will be important, especially for the first year, to have no expectations for participation.

"It will be hard for all of us," she said. "The idea is to build community around a garden."

Lavender's vision is of community members from both Kirkwood and Meacham Park working together to tend the garden, chatting with passers-by and inviting them to lend a hand. One woman suggested sharing recipes using the vegetables that will grow in the garden.

So far, Lavender said, there has been a lot of interest in the project from people she has talked to in the community and at neighborhood association meetings. The next step is to continue spreading the word, and getting people to turn their interest into helping hands.

The task for the work day on Saturday was to build about 20 8 feet by 4 feet wooden garden beds, spacing them out across the property. Tom Riggs, who owns Riggs Construction in Kirkwood, supplied the lumber, tools and know-how to build the boxes, with the help of Lavender, Mike VonGerichten and Tom Stokes. Kirkwood residents Jill Gatcomb, Rick Heyer and Lee Streett came by later and began staking and digging the beds into the ground.

Next week the group will fill the beds with soil and begin collecting seeds and seedlings to plant the following week. Lavender said the plan is to plant vegetables that participants can use in their own kitchens, like green beans, tomatoes, herbs, collard greens, turnips and mustard.

The community garden in Kirkwood is donating some seeds and plants, Lavender said, and Bell Garden in St. Louis offers seedlings for 50 cents each to community gardens.

Lee Streett, a Kirkwood resident who came out to help build beds Saturday, said she thinks the Meacham Park garden has good potential. She helped start the Kirkwood Community Garden last year, and hopes to see this one have the same success.

"There's nothing like gardening to bring people together," she said.