Finding The Perfect Spot

For The Victory Garden

By Kendra Bobowick

After talking recently about relocating the Victory Garden to a site alongside Cochran House near Glander Field and a nearby pavilion, Land Use Agency Director George Benson took a closer look at his options.

“The area by the pavilion, it’s steep and isn’t a real nice area to do it,” he said. Considering the garden’s size and that slopes of the proposed new location, he said, “It just wouldn’t fit.”

Another nearby location — situated between the Emergency Operations Center, Cochran House and Keating Farm Road, which enters the Fairfield Hills campus from Mile Hill South — is now the preferred location for Newtown’s Victory Garden.

Mr Benson said that drivers can make a left onto Keating Farm and will see an old greenhouse on the right. A brief walk past that brings visitors to little basketball court and open lawn.

“It’s all flat” and ideal for a large garden, he said.

Currently located across from Reed Intermediate School and visible from Wasserman Way, The Victory Garden — a project designed to grow and provide produce to the town’s food pantries, about to enter its second season — now sits on a spot recently identified as an ideal location to build a new garage for Newtown Ambulance Association.

Although no specific timeline is yet set to break ground for the garage, Mr Benson wants to relocate the garden with some security.

“We were trying to find a place where [it] can be forever,” he said. The greenhouse near the location has a water supply, which could be extended for the gardeners’ use. Parking space is also ample, he said.

Save The Date: April 1

To gardening volunteers and the Parks and Recreation Department, garden founder Harvey Pessin sent an e-mail recently saying, “It’s just about that time of year again, and I’m sure we’re all ready to start planting in the Victory Garden.”

Parks & Recreation Director Amy Mangold confirmed that this spring’s planting will take place in the current garden beds.

Row markers and numbers will soon be in place, Mr Pessin said, including a system “for leaving messages for the harvesters on the markers.”

Deer fence repairs will also take place.

He hopes to assign the same rows to last year’s returning volunteer teams, and fill the empty rows with this year’s new volunteers.

The garden’s officials opening “should be on or around April 1,” he said.

“If we capitalize on last year’s lessons learned, we should look forward to a bountiful crop, and an exciting community experience.”

Residents wishing to learn more about the garden or to volunteer their time can reach the Parks & Recreation department at 203-270-4340.