The unseasonably brisk winds on Saturday, May 1 may not have seemed like ideal gardening weather. But for those eagerly streaming in to mark the 7th planting day at the Cambridge Community Garden at Waugh Chapel, conditions were close enough to perfect.
The 50 bare garden beds beckoned welcomingly like beacons after the past Covid-challenged year. Decked out in masks and work gloves, people happily perused seed packs and bedding plants before spreading several bags of Leaf Gro to replenish the soil. As folks set about digging, watering, and visiting, you could sense that they were getting refilled as well, after so much isolation.
There were young families with children and babies, and seniors in their 70s and 80s, all busy in their own way, not sure what was going to come up, but willing to try their hand at growing food and flowers and, along the way, becoming a community. Though no longer there to see it in person, it would have brought a smile to the face of the man who first envisioned such a scene, Pastor Emanual L. Johnson.
In 2015, shortly after Pastor Johnson arrived to lead historic Waugh Chapel on High Street in downtown Cambridge, the city held an open meeting to discuss ways to engage all citizens, no matter their age, race, economic status, or other factor. Rev. Johnson suggested a community garden, and he knew of a perfect spot.
While gazing out at the grassy backyard at Waugh Chapel, Johnson had a flash of what some might call divine inspiration. During his 7-year congregation appointment in St. Michaels, Johnson had been on the committee to help transform two downtown vacant lots into a thriving community garden.
Not only did people get to experience the joy and bounty of growing their own food, but they did also so alongside folks from different backgrounds, finding common ground.
Johnson saw a similar potential for Cambridge. As soon as the idea germinated, he began sowing the seeds, stopping first at Dorchester County Health Department. From there he got together a core group to work on the project, including Lynnette Wongus, Dorchester County Assistant Finance Director Cindy Smith, and Master Gardener Kathy Burtman.
The Waugh Chapel trustees gave their blessing and generously offered the site rent-free. “Seed money” to the tune of $25,000 was raised through grants and donations from numerous area organizations and foundations, with special support from the Elks and Robbins Foundation.
During the first and second years, 25 beds were constructed, and a water line and watering stations installed. Habitat for Humanity volunteers built a shed, compost bins, and fencing. Another vital community partner, ShoreRivers, created a rain garden.
During the second year, 25 more beds were built, and each year a few more are “raised” to stand higher off the ground, partly for gardener accessibility, partly due to the high-water table at one end of the property.
At the outset in 2015, Burtman had just earned her Master Gardener certification, achieving the first goal she’d set following retirement from a special ed teaching career. A second goal—starting her first ever vegetable garden—would soon be realized in a bigger way than she’d imagined, mentoring gardeners as well.
Early on Burtman recruited Robin Herman, who’d taken Master Gardener classes alongside her, to help in the effort. “We’ve been joined at the hip every growing season since,” Herman laughed.
They patiently tackle new and more seasoned gardeners’ questions about bugs, soil, and anything else growing related. “If we don’t know, we check with the University of Maryland Extension Service to find out,” Herman added.
As a teaching tool and to help the overall garden, Burtman and Herman plant devoted beds– one with perennial flowers to attract earlier pollinators, one with annuals for summer pollinators which goes in towards the end of May, and an herb garden adorned with a mason bee house, which gardeners are welcome to take clippings from.
Both look forward to resuming their weekly garden drop in each Wednesday from 5 to 6 p.m., cancelled last year due to Covid. They’re also cautiously optimistic about the possibility of once again holding the annual mid-summer harvest dinner, a well-attended highlight of each gardening season prior to 2020.
Burtman relishes being able to once again sample the meal produced from gardeners’ bounty, but even more, to see the open-air tables filled with folks “who might never have met each other” if not for the garden, amiably celebrating together, she added.
While she works in tandem with Burtman to help contribute to each gardener’s success, Herman credits her with being “the main one” responsible for ongoing behind-the-scenes efforts, starting as early as January, including testing the soil and tilling under the cover crop planted each winter. As Spring approaches she finalizes assigning beds and sending emails to update gardeners on what needs to be done prior to planting day.
Burtman, meanwhile, is grateful to husband John for contributing his ag expertise, equipment, construction know how, and challenging work, constructing 2/3 of the garden’s beds along with other projects in concert with others he volunteers with at Habitat for Humanity, including Tom Wilson, who “is there whenever we call,” Burtman noted.
Herman’s husband Bruce, who last year sat in on Master Gardener Zoom classes along with her, is also actively engaged in helping whenever needed. On planting day, he, Wilson, and others manned and distributed the overflowing truckload of Leaf Gro, contributed at a steep discount to gardeners from Chesapeake Feed and Seed. Julie Harris, of Harris Farms, is among other area enterprises providing support, growing bedding starts from seed and making them available to the Community Garden at a steep discount allowing them to be made available for free to gardeners.
She lauds Waugh Chapel, a “tremendous partner,” acknowledging the congregation’s rightful pride in hosting the garden and the active participation of several members, especially Shirley Jackson, in her 80s, who’s faithfully maintained binders full of photos and news clippings marking each celebratory moment for posterity. (Jackson also ably lends a willing hand at weeding and other garden duties). Ty Braxton, who maintains a bed with her mother My, brings a passionate community spirit to her ongoing role as community liaison.
Linda Henry and Marie Anderson have each returned to lovingly tend their beds.has returned to again lovingly tend her garden bed, and so has Rhodesia Jackson, along with 8-year-old daughter Kayleigh Morgan.
“The most open beds we’ve had in the last couple of years has been between 8 and 10. The vast majority of my gardeners have come back. It’s unusual for me to have more than 3 that don’t come back the next year,” Burtman added.
Currently serving at a Chestertown parish, Rev. Johnson has returned to receive an honor from the Elks for his vision and effort in creating the Cambridge Community Garden, and he’s enormously gratified that it’s still going strong. Though set to leave for a new pastoral assignment in Crisfield soon, he’s once again leaving behind a gardening legacy at a Pomona site near Chestertown.
For information about the Cambridge Community Garden at Waugh Chapel, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Cambridge-Community-Garden-at-Waugh-Chapel-487122601436790, or contact Kathy Burtman at [email protected]. Also see https://soundcloud.com/whcp-radio/community-garden-sega.
Debra Messick is a retired Dorchester County Public Library associate and lifelong freelance writer. A transplanted native Philadelphian, she has enjoyed residing in Cambridge MD since 1995.
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