Community garden has a new home

Sisters Community Garden will have a permanent home for the 2010 growing season and beyond.

The group that maintains the garden - presently located on East Adams Avenue on land owned by Sisters Habitat for Humanity - has been looking for a place to set down roots long term. The new location is on the north edge of the Sisters Overnight Park, and is owned by the City of Sisters.

The city council agreed unanimously on December 11 to allow the Community Garden to be placed there.

The Adams Avenue location, in use from 2007, is owned by Habitat and is leased on a per-year basis. The garden will be there for the 2009 season.

Community Garden Board co-chair, Marlys Underwood, said the garden members understood from the start that the site was temporary and began looking in earnest last year for a new home.

Research into other community gardens showed that a majority of them were placed on city-owned land. A request last year for the garden to be allowed onto part of the Cliff Clemens Park met with stiff opposition from neighbors. The city then came up with three alternative sites, the best one being the Overnight Park location.

Neighborly relations are important to garden members, said Underwood. The Cliff Clemens Park situation made them see that a too-public location wasn't ideal.

"We had to be careful," she said, regarding requests for placement of the garden.

The new site has no direct neighbors, but is near Coyote Springs and Buck Run, a plus for aspiring gardeners in those subdivisions.

"The city has been hugely supportive of this," said Underwood.

Water availability and other city services have been addressed and councilors agree that the community garden is an asset to the city. Garden plots are available to both city residents and those living outside city limits. Flowers grown in the garden are regularly given to community members suffering a loss or crisis, and excess produce is donated to the Kiwanis Food Bank.