Grow, Share, Savor: Beach 91st Community Gardens’ New Herb Bed!”

We saw woody thyme scattered throughout the Beach 91st Community Garden at season’s close last September, when the colorful camouflage of rich, red tomatoes, green peppers and the lanky yellow black-eyed Susans disappeared. It became visibly clear there were duplications of so many herbs. This sparked an idea – build a communal herb garden!

My friend Katherine and I presented the concept at our monthly garden meeting last season, and everyone was on board! The objective of this project was to maximize growing space in members’ plots. Given the abundance of duplicated herbs, interested folks would relocate their herbs into the dedicated herb bed, which would then be cultivated for the benefit and enjoyment of all members as a shared herb garden. This would allow for more space in individual plots for growing vegetables.

Member Bobby Carnevale draws out the plans for the herb bed.

Project plan overview.

Builder Bobby Carnevale filling the bed with garden refuse.

A community effort.

Melissa Draugsvold planting herbs!

The fantastic idea was convinced, and now we needed to execute the project. Bobby Carnevale, Katherine’s husband, had a circular saw and the ambition to build the bed! Leadership member Kurt Dorian collaborated with Bobby on design and materials. I’m proud to say we managed to build the 10 ft bed for under 100 dollars. We sourced the wood for free, used weed barrier fabric we already had and only needed to purchase some blades, screws, and soil!

Thank you, Bobby, Kurt, Katherine, and garden members who donated and planted their herbs for the shared herb bed. I’m excited to cook with fresh herbs all summer long and look forward to fall when we’ll dry and preserve our late crop for year-round, home-grown spice and flavor.

If you’d like to see our new herb garden, good news… our plant sale has been rescheduled for Sunday, June 30th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Browse a selection of house plants, perennials, garden totes, and shop Holland Ave.Soap while spending a lovely day in the garden. Event details and more photos and video of the herb garden build-out can be found on the Gardens’ Instagram – @beach91communitygarden

For more on gardening, f0llow me on IG @theglorifiedtomato.