| Gardens
Provide Room to Grow |
By Leslie Perales
Observer Staff Writer |
| Reston Association's garden plots may not look like much
now, but community gardeners soon will fill them with okra,
peppers, tomatoes, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables
and flowers. |
| The garden plots have been in operation since the early
1960s, according to Patricia Greenberg, environmental resources
supervisor for RA. Greenberg said RA wanted to offer this
space to residents because many people live in condos or have
yards that are completely shaded. |
| Like the tennis courts and pools, the garden plots are another
recreational facility for the community, she said. She said
some gardeners even create areas to sit and enjoy their gardens.
For example, one of the plots features a small pond, as well
as a table and chairs. |
| In total, RA owns four garden sites—two in Hunters Woods,
one at Golf Course Island and one at Lake Anne—with a total
of more than 200 individual plots. A fifth garden site near
Cedar Ridge was closed in recent years because of vandalism,
Greenberg said. "It was unfortunate," she said. |
| The open land that hosts the sites is located on a gas pipeline
easement where trees and buildings cannot be planted or built,
and that is why it was chosen for the garden program, according
to Greenberg. |
| There are currently about 99 people on the waiting list
for garden plots and 15 plots became available for those on
the list earlier this season. Renting space in the garden
program ranges in cost from $20 to more than $100 depending
on the size of the plot, according to the RA Web site. |
| "The fact that there is a list of people waiting shows that
there's a lot of interest in it," Greenberg said. |
| Curtis Jackson, who works with environmental resources for
RA, said although much of Virginia's soil is made of clay,
the soil condition at RA's garden plots is great for growing
vegetables and flowers because the garden plots have been
worked for so many years. |
| Of the four garden locations, the site at Lake Anne is the
only one that is not completely organic, Greenberg said. Gardeners
at all other plots are forbidden from using any pesticides
or fertilizers containing chemicals. "Reston Association also
provides organic gardening workshops," Greenberg said. One
workshop was held in late February and another was held last
week. |
| While RA does not plan to add any more garden sites in the
near future, Greenberg said they have other improvements and
changes planned. She said sometimes moles, groundhogs and
other animals get into the plots, so RA has been looking at
adding a nesting area for red-shouldered hawks. |
| "They're a natural predator and it would help keep them
away from garden plots," she said. |
| She also said one of the plot renters plans to install a
bee box between the two Hunters Woods locations to encourage
bee pollination for the gardens. |
| Each of the four sites is overseen by RA and a garden coordinator,
who provides information to renters and manages the gardens.
"Our coordinators are a big help," Greenberg said, explaining
that sometimes there are border wars between gardeners, but
RA staff, "ask gardeners to respect their neighbors." |
| Gardeners are responsible for fencing their plots and maintaining
the individual areas. If areas are not maintained or are not
worked by May 1, RA reassigns them to someone on the waiting
list. |
| Greenberg said those who are on the waiting list should
"hang in there" because renters sometimes give up their plots
once they realize the amount of maintenance it requires. "There's
quite a few people who think they want to do it and it's a
lot of work, maintaining it," she said. |
