The Fenton Community Garden is the 'Cream of the Crop'

After a late start due to a lot of spring showers, The Fenton Community Garden is experiencing a bountiful harvest. Lush tomatoes, crisp green cucumbers, savory herbs and tangy peppers are part of the crops finding their way to the gardeners' tables.

Membership Coordinator Cherie Smith said she planted in late June, due to the rainy spring. "Everything was under water," said Smith's husband, Ben Smith.

"We were off to a wet start this spring," Cherie Smith said.

Nevertheless, the Smiths' plot has been a success. They have heirloom tomatoes, including large Mortgage Lifters and Belgian Giants.

Some youngsters visiting them recently had fun seeing the garden.

"They can really know how vegetables get to the grocery store," Smith said.

One asked what a carrot looks like in the garden. "I pulled a carrot up and we washed it and we all took a bite of it," she said.

Except for one small girl, 4, who said she'd eaten a raw carrot once at school, with ranch dressing.

"Where does the ranch dressing grow?" she asked.

A first-time community garden participant, President Drew Weigandt is harvesting the fruits — actually, vegetables and herbs — of his labor. Inspired by his roommate, who has participated in the garden since it began, Weigandt is enjoying fresh tomatoes, basil, cilantro, thyme, sage, cucumbers and peppers.

"I love to cook, pasta with spices," he said.

In addition, Smith said Weigandt has mowed, hoed, trimmed, planted and used a rototiller, maintaining the grounds.

And Treasurer Scott Clark does a lot of the work as well. "He's farmed all his life and knows the ins and outs," Smith said.

In addition, The Fenton Community Garden offers free, fresh produce to those in the community who need it, 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, while supplies last, said Smith. The garden is located off Oak Park Drive in Fenton.

It is in its third year, and 10- by 20-foot plots are available to rent for next year. The cost is $30 if the amount is paid in advance now, giving the gardener free soil rototilling before planting. Rototilling normally costs an additional $5.

Gardeners are not allowed to use chemical pesticides and weed killers; it is purely organic gardening, Smith said. The Fenton Community Garden uses Oak Park, owned by the city of Fenton, and the organization pays the city $150 annually for water. The cost of water for gardeners' plots is included in their rental fee.

Forty plots are available, and more information is available by calling the membership coordinator at (810) 750-1708. In addition, The Fenton Community Garden is on Facebook and has a website, http://fentoncommunitygarden.org