NARROWSBURG, NY — “If you have a garden in your library, we will want for nothing.” 

That was Cicero, writing to a friend. Gardens in Roman times were used for thinking, daydreaming, philosophising—and for talking. 

The Tusten Heritage Community Garden (THCG) is located near the Tusten-Cochecton Library, not in it. But even so, the garden is used, and will be used, for growing food and flowers and delights for pollinators—and for art, thinking, daydreaming, talking and maybe philosophising too.

Community gardens are public green spaces. They can be used to teach (about gardening, edible landscape design, growing food—endless possibilities). Children can learn responsibility for the land and for the plants under their care. 

The garden is vibrant. It’s pollinator-friendly. It uses organic methods. “No spraying,” Green said. “We use permaculture.” 

Permaculture is a holistic approach to gardening. It is self-sufficient, turning waste into compost, conserving water in a dry season—the goal is a sustainable system. It calls for responsibility.

The THCG has been around for 12 years but it hasn’t rested on its laurels. Things are changing and not changing; new partners are involved and new activities are on the horizon but the mission always remains the same.

“This year the garden is partnering with several local organizations,” said THCG board member Elizabeth Green. “We’re partnering with Tusten Social. The kids [from Tusten Social’s youth program] will work at the garden once a week, helping to prepare the soil, helping get the indoor growth station going.” (That’s a seed-starting setup. Even with our unusually warm winter, you probably don’t want to start tomatoes outside from seed. Start them indoors, then transplant around Memorial Day, as the THCG does.)

The garden partners with the library and recycling/composting program growingSOUL. The latter work will offer a three-season curriculum at the Narrowsburg Community Center kitchen, said Green.

The Tusten Social collaboration involves seniors as well—seniors who have decades of gardening knowledge, encompassing all types of weather and insect infestations and who-knows-what—and who are willing to share that wealth.

The THCG works with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Sullivan County; help was enlisted to cope with mugwort in the lawn. 

There’s an upcoming collaboration with Zane Grey Plein Air. The plein-air-painting group will have a bed in the garden, growing plants suitable for their work. Call it Still Life with Garden Produce, maybe? 

“Gardeners help each other. They socialize together. I’m excited,” Green said.

Gardens for all

Community gardens have broad appeal. THCG members include locals, tenants (who usually aren’t allowed to dig up the yard at a rented home), second-home owners. Even people whose yards live in darkness, but the owners want to grow sun-loving plants. “We have full sun,” said Green cheerfully. 

Not that she needs to market the THCG. The 21 beds are taken for the year. But there’s always next year!

What are the best things to grow? Tomatoes and cucumbers are easy and fun for beginners, gardeners said. You could grow flowers. Garlic. Herbs. 

Outside the deer-fenced garden are the pollinator plants: milkweed, mountain mint, butterfly bush. “They can look like weeds,” Green said a little wryly. But the benefit to bees and butterflies is absolutely worth it. 

And it reflects the gardeners’ responsibility. Permaculture. 

The garden, held in common

“All programs are free; all workshops are free,” Green said. “People aren’t aware it’s a common garden. We welcome everyone.”

As the growing season gets going, the Tusten Heritage Community Garden page on Facebook will get busier too. It’s a good place to check if you want to know what’s happening.

“Social get-togethers are planned, and workshops,” Green said. Previously they held social events in the garden before performances at the nearby Tusten Theatre. These will continue.

The process of growing food means kids will plant the seeds of a meal (basil for pesto, tomatoes for sauce, the salad); can prepare the meal at the community center—and then eat it.

Maybe someday plants could be grown for a workshop in botanical dyeing.

Who knows? The possibilities are endless, like the work of a garden, like the cycle of seasons.