PHOTOS: Common Grounds Community Garden in Lakewood Launches their Second Year

After a long winter of planning and preparation, the volunteers of the Common Grounds Community Garden are excited to open for another season.

As the beneficiary of a grant from the Lakewood Township, they have been able to expand for 2022 with additional garden beds, a greater variety of plants, as well as updated decor to make trips to the garden even more pleasant for visitors.

Located at the John Patrick Sports Complex in Lakewood, the 3,500 square foot garden has something for everyone – from fruit trees to vegetables to herbs, as well as both annual and perennial flowers. The garden is free and open to all of the public year-round, including local pollinators.

Jackson resident and gardening enthusiast Ayala (Hindy) Schlossberg, who was instrumental in helping create the garden from the start, has been appointed as Head Gardener and is thrilled to bring her knowledge to benefit all garden visitors. Having spent the last few months winter-sowing and seed-starting indoors, she is eager to get seedlings in the ground to be enjoyed by all. The extensive list of plants includes veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, eggplants, peas and beans), herbs (oregano, thyme, parsley, sage), flowers (dahlias, ranunculus, anemones, zinnia, carnations), as well as trees and bushes (lilac, orache, fig, lemon, maple) and more.

Volunteers have been busy as bees for the last few weeks, prepping the garden for the upcoming season.

On April 27th, a group of Lakewood Police Department officers spent hours working to build the new garden beds, install new routes in the water irrigation system, and clear leaves and weeds.

This past week, 23 boys from a seventh grade class in Yeshiva Tifereth Torah (YTT) got their hands dirty and had fun when they worked on clearing and filling garden beds with composted soil. Of course, their year-round volunteers have also been busy seeding, germinating and taking care of seedlings as they’ve waited for the weather to warm enough so that they could be transplanted outdoors.

As a project of the non-profit One Ocean County, Common Grounds was created with the goal of bringing the diverse populations of the area together to build and grow something together, in a place where everyone feels connected and celebrated. Already, the community garden has hosted workshops for the elderly, for elementary and high school students, as well as consulted with institutions like Fort Dix and private schools in order to help them set up their own edible gardens. Further on-site workshops are planned for throughout the 2022 growing season.

This Sunday, May 15th, Common Grounds will be hosting an open house for the entire community to come visit as they launch for their second year.

Scheduled for 3-5 PM, this event will be a fun, festive occasion with something for everyone to enjoy – including a plant sale, free slush from an ice cream truck, craft activities and garden tours. It’s the perfect chance for anyone curious about the community garden to come and learn to get involved.

An important part of the garden’s mission this year is is to encourage as many local schools and other organizations to utilize the garden by planning visits or by hosting volunteer-led gardening workshops in their schools or institutions. Educators are encouraged to visit the open house to learn more and discuss how they can get their students involved in the garden. Sunday will be the start of what should be an amazing season of growth and cooperation.

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Please register here to attend this Sunday’s free open house event.

For more information or to get involved contact [email protected] or call (732) 503-8010‬

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Love this! I wish I would have learned some basic gardening in school when I was younger. Would have been much more useful than learning all about the Byzantine Empire which is yet to affect my life…

    Great work by One Ocean County, a wonderful organization bringing unity through nature!

    Maybe this can be part of the science curriculum. There are probably 10 schools within a 5 minute drive of the garden.

  2. Do the different groups work at the same time? It looks like certain groups are only there certain times. I’m not sure the mixing of groups would be OK.

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