“Gardeners instinctively know that flowers and plants are a continuum and that the wheel of garden history will always be coming full circle.”

– Francis Cabot Lowell

Every gardener knows that gardens are ever evolving, living experiments at the mercy of Mother Nature, human labor and even politics. The Grant Beach Community Garden is no exception.

Founded in 2010 through the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association, the Grant Beach Community Garden at 800 W. Hovey was a flagship community garden in Springfield. Out of the Grant Beach Community Garden sprang Springfield Community Gardens, an organization whose mission is to encourage community gardening.

The Grant Beach garden is entering a new phase that will hopefully be its best yet. Garden guru Richard Napieralski has resumed his role at the garden and has great expectations for the growing season to come. Grant Beach Community Garden is once again an independent neighborhood garden by a vote of the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association.

Springfield Community Gardens was generous enough to host a seed swap March 10 at the Drew Lewis Foundation at The Fairbanks to benefit Grant Beach Community Garden at Hovey House. We expect seeds to be planted and growing to happen!

While we are happy to see grant money flow into Springfield Community Gardens which rents office space and land for The Market Garden from The Fairbanks in the Grant Beach neighborhood, we know from experience that gardening at its most basic level is about building community and growing food.

There is no greater visual evidence of this than at the Grant Beach Community Garden kiosk. Grant Beach Community Garden was founded with the sole purpose of distributing fresh produce to those in the neighborhood who need it. Anyone can access the kiosk.

There are no applications, lotteries, dues or rigorous vetting of recipients. While it is hoped and appreciated that those who receive produce will spend some time volunteering in the garden, it is never a requirement to receive food. No one has ever been refused for any reason. Take what you need. Leave something for someone else.

Grant Beach Community Garden has grown up and realized that its roots are in the community. A plant is only as good as the soil it is grown in and for us that soil was made at 800 W. Hovey. Grant Beach Community Garden will harvest the benefits of community and be better for it. We wish Springfield Community Gardens well.

If you want to get your hands dirty in the Grant Beach Community Garden stop by 800 W. Hovey, contact Richard Napieralski, come to a GBNA general meeting on the third Monday of the month at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall or attend the monthly Grant Beach Community Garden Committee meetings held at Hovey House.