Takoma Park Allocates Land for Teen Garden

Takoma Park has allocated land to be used as a community vegetable garden, so members of the Recreation Committee are organizing to prepare the land for planting, which organizers are working to occur during the week of May 15.

The allocation of a 20 foot by 20 foot section of land at the Takoma Park Community Center was announced at the Recreation Committee’s meeting May 9. The allocation of land was made within two weeks of the Takoma Foundation awarding a $1,000 grant in support of the project.

The land is located at the lower part of the Community Center in what is called “the moat,” right outside Police Chief Ronald Ricucci’s office, said Kay Daniels-Cohen, a Recreation Committee member and president of the SS Carroll Neighborhood Association.

There are four patches of land outside the lower section of the Community Center, but in addition to land, the project needs an area that is exposed to sun, and which has a source of water, said Daniels-Cohen, who added the patch of land has met all those requirements. The soil has been checked out and found to be good for growing, and a member of the community who has a landscaping business has volunteered to remove the grass-covered sod that is currently growing on the land, she said.

On May 12, Daniels-Cohen is set to meet with Faye Wright, who is in charge of teen programs, and with a number of youths who are interested in working on the garden.

Daniels-Cohen said she will look for about 30 teens from the teenage recreation program to start the program.

If the garden is to be a success, the vegetables have to be planted very soon, said members of the committee. “We have to get stuff in the ground if we’re going to get any yield at all,” Daniels-Cohen said. Tomato plants take 60 days from planting until a tomato is produced, she added. Therefore, the patch of land is to be made ready on May 14, so the youths can plant the week of May 15, she said.

The “heavy prep work” is to be done by May 14 from 9 a.m. to noon, so the committee is seeking volunteers who can help break up the soil.

“Volunteers should bring a shovel,” Daniels-Cohen said.

The $1,000 grant, and the allotment of land use, quickly renewed the garden project that committee members believed would have to be delayed until the spring of 2012. However, the initial garden is a pilot project, which will have to move to another location in 2012, according to Daniels-Cohen.

“The city made it clear that the land is only for this year,” she said.

That stipulation and excitement over the project has stoked discussions on expansion of the program in 2012 at patches of land throughout Takoma Park.