Moorestown’s community garden on Camden Avenue near the Perkins Center for the Arts offers plenty of space for residents who want to spend time outdoors and try something new.
People can grow a wide array of produce in their plots, including lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, squash and eggplant, as well as plants and flowers.
“It’s a natural pollinator paradise for butterflies that come,” said Moorestown Garden Club President Jean Pollock. “And the bees … there’s a hive collapse issue globally, so it’s wonderful to have things that the bees like because it helps keep them healthy.”
According to former club President Gina Zegel, Perkins owned the land before selling it to the township.
“In 1980, the Moorestown Garden Club was approached by the township to utilize this patch of land for gardeners,” Zegel recalled.
The club now wants to develop curb appeal, acquire new fencing and give every plot – 17 in all – its own garden gate.
“It’s a wonderful place for the community to have, and we support gardening and we support pollination so … flowers, vegetables, fruits that people grow here … (we) certainly support the bee population,” Pollock said.
For residents who have backyards with a lot of shade, the garden is a bright spot.
“This really helps people who want to garden and don’t have the sunshine for it, so it really serves the community in a good, natural way,” Zegel said.
The garden is ready for the start of the season and residents have designed new ways to keep their plots intact, including using materials such as bean pole stakes.
“That’s the fun part of gardening: necessity is the mother of invention,” Pollock noted. “People have really been very creative in terms of what they use, and it works. And we want people to know (that) you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a garden that produces food or beautiful flowers.”
The club looks forward to revamping the garden.
“We thought, ‘You know what? This is the perfect time.’ … The year of the environment (has) been declared so we kind of want to tie in with that,” Pollock said.
Anyone interested in supporting the community garden, can contact the club through their website at moorestowngardenclub.com.
“The community garden is a gem of Moorestown,” Pollock explained. “It’s been here since the 1980s, it promotes people coming together, you grow food, you grow flowers, people spend a wonderful day in the sunshine.”
“It’s a multigenerational activity, and we want our younger generations to know where their food comes from,” she added. “It’s important to know that.”
