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Mashpee <br /> Environmental <br /> Coalition <br /> For Everyone a Garden: Restore the Mashpee Community Garden; article for the Mashpee Enterprise <br /> "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" said the brass plaque in a flourishing vegetable and flower <br /> garden near my home in Mashpee. The owner kindly welcomed anyone to walk into the garden, enjoy <br /> the flowers, view the vegetables, sit near the fountain in the small lotus pond and smile at statuary of <br /> frogs and other creatures. Artists came to paint there. It was a gift to those who walked by and was <br /> tilled for many years. Now a house stands where once there was a garden, but the garden lives in <br /> memory. <br /> A community garden is a special kind of garden. Public open space, a community garden is a town's gift <br /> to its residents. Divided into individual plots, a community garden is an opportunity for residents who <br /> want to grow fresh food for their family, but for some reason—lack of arable land; renters with <br /> restrictions; a wooded lot—they cannot do so at home. Some also have a youth recreational <br /> component. <br /> In cities and towns, community gardens have long been recognized as important resources. The <br /> brochure "Multiple Benefits of Community Gardening " describes benefits beyond the joy of growing <br /> and eating your own vegetables People without land of their own have the opportunity to produce <br /> food. Food does not travel 7-14 days to the supermarket, and the greenhouse gas emissions are <br /> reduced. Property close to the garden increases in value. The vegetables are fresh. You will know what <br /> you eat is full of vitamins and free of pesticides. You get exercise which is good for your heart and blood <br /> pressure. It is good for your mental health. Gardening is a project and you always have something to <br /> tend and care for and in the process you interact with other gardeners and become a community. <br /> Community Gardens do indeed provide a well-documented economic benefit and actually increase <br /> property values in the garden's neighborhood. Community gardens in Boston, for example, were found <br /> to constitute some of the most productive farmland in New England. Those benefits, and more, are also <br /> recognized in communities around the Cape. There are thriving community gardens in Provincetown, <br /> Wellfleet, Orleans, Harwich, Brewster, Dennis, Barnstable and Falmouth. Many are managed by the <br /> town's Conservation Department, although the Mashpee gardens are on Town-owned land, not <br /> conservation land. <br /> So, why has Mashpee chosen to abandon and even destroy its community gardens? While the town <br /> seeks to build pickleball courts, a popular sport with retirees, it seems to have seen that effort as a <br /> chance to destroy the community gardens and the pollinator gardens installed in that rather bucolic <br /> setting on Route 130 in the Historic District. This after purposefully abandoning the gardens this year; <br /> leaving gardeners without their place to grow food and flowers. <br /> Both the Town of Mashpee's Environmental Oversight Committee (EOC) and the board of the Mashpee <br /> Environmental Coalition (MEC) voted unanimously to direct the town to protect and revive the <br /> community gardens in their present location—or at least ensure that a good community garden be <br /> provided for its residents. MEC also voted to assist the town in reviving and managing the gardens. <br /> How can Mashpee call itself a "green community" if it cannot even maintain a functioning Community <br /> Garden? Other towns on the Cape do it; why can't we? The community garden in Provincetown, which <br /> is flourishing, has 55 plots and is run by a garden advisory group. There are beekeepers with active <br /> Page 1 <br />