SOWING THE SEEDS

Experts share their tips for putting together the perfect community garden.

- GRACE HEBRON

WHAT DRAWS PEOPLE to community gardens? For some, it’s the sense of accomplishment and thrill that comes from harvesting their own fruits, flowers, and vegetables. For others, it’s the simple therapeutic pleasure of creating and caring for beautiful, outdoor spaces.

For Naomi Goldstick Rosner, it was the chance to meet neighbors that sparked her interest in carving out a vegetable garden in the backyard of her Mount Washington home about 10 years ago.

“I posted on Listserv that I had a lot of space in my yard, and if anybody wanted to do vegetable gardening with me, I’d be happy to,” says Goldstick Rosner, who, along with her husband, had recently moved to the Victorian-era neighborhood from Houston, Texas.

When more than 20 interested neighbors responded to her post, she sought the advice of Baltimore Green Space’s founder and then-director Miriam Avins, who advised Goldstick Rosner to contact Master Gardener Larry Kloze. It didn’t go to plan.