New Castle has five ballfields, five playgrounds and four town parks, but did you know we also have two community vegetable gardens? Nestled in different corners of this beautiful township are places where community members have been growing tomatoes and squash, basil, and cucumbers every spring into fall for almost 15 years. The Chappaqua Community Garden at CVAC, founded in 2012 by Suzi Novak and Intergenerate, sits right behind the Ambulance Corps in downtown Chappaqua. The Community Garden at Millwood is located on the site of the former Millwood Swim Club, at the base of Sand Street. Both were created to teach local residents how to grow their own food.
Our Community Gardens, just like so many in urban and suburban areas, have transformed vacant spaces into magical gardens for growing primarily vegetables, but some native flowers as well. Both the Chappaqua and Millwood gardens are run by passionate community gardeners and are considered “Legacy Gardens” under the umbrella of Intergenerate, a non-profit that provides resources and some funding. The Chappaqua Community Garden has been managed for the past 10 years by long-time Chappaqua resident, Joan Basile. Mike Jurney took over management of the Community Garden at Millwood just over a year ago.
Community members come together seasonally to connect over their love of gardening. But in addition to getting their hands dirty and growing vegetables, these gardens provide an opportunity for local residents to try a new hobby, make new friends, and just be outside discovering where our food really comes from.
OUR GARDENS
Joan Basile has spent the past 10 years transforming the Chappaqua Garden to what it is today. With an interesting background combining clinical psychology, therapeutic horticulture (she currently teaches at the New York Botanical Garden) and gardening, Basile is also a self-identifying amateur soil scientist. Her focus is on achieving the best soil and compost and the right blend of plants to restore biodiversity and create a healthier ecosystem. This includes adding native pollinator plants to the garden to attract beneficial insects. Last year Basile received a grant for 855 native flowering plants which she, and another passionate local volunteer, Lisa Johnson, installed in and around the garden, enhancing the existing pollinator garden spaces.
On the other side of town, Mike Jurney has been busy upgrading the Millwood Garden. Jurney’s focus has been on transitioning the garden to a new layout. This planting season will start off with a new shed, upgraded galvanized steel containers for planting beds, fresh soil and plants. Jurney’s passion for gardening goes all the way back to his childhood where he was inspired by his grandparents who each maintained their own separate garden.
As a 9-year Chappaqua resident, Jurney is embracing his new role in the Millwood Garden with skill, creativity and enthusiasm. His main goal is to get the community motivated and engaged. “We welcome all gardeners from New Castle. No experience is necessary and there is regular instruction for those new to gardening.” Jurney enjoys creating a space where all gardeners can participate in the life of the garden in whatever way works for them. Having the best planting resources certainly helps with that, as each year can bring different results. Some years are great for cucumbers but terrible for tomatoes; it’s hard to know in advance. But ultimately, planting together as a community is what this is really all about.
For both gardens, community engagement and education around the benefits of healthy soil and planting is very much a part of the process. Changing climate plays into this as well. Noting warmer springs, Basile stresses earlier planting with her gardeners. While the general rule used to be to wait until mid to late May (Mother’s Day) to plant, warming trends have made it necessary to start planting earlier in the month. And with hotter summers she encourages planting for an early garden and late garden where plants will have a better chance of survival.
Over the past five years, the Chappaqua Garden has been growing pollinator plants alongside the vegetables. These native flowers naturally attract butterflies and beneficial insects- improving the general wellbeing of the garden. Basile hopes to add more signage soon so community members can understand the importance of these native plantings. She also teaches sustainable garden practices like planting cover crops in the fall to feed soil life all winter long and allowing plants that have died back at the end of the growing season to remain so they can break down- making the soil more nutritive for the following season.
This year, both gardens have a strong returning community of gardeners, but there are still slots available. And with members ranging in age from 30 to 70+, everyone seems to find connection through gardening. Membership includes a plot, soil plus additives like compost, and starter plants like squash, tomatoes and basil. Members can always trade with each other and can also buy additional plants for their plot. Basile includes some flowers in her starter pack- like marigolds, borage plants and nasturtium which help to feed the soil and repel some invasive insects. Plus, they make the garden look pretty! This year she is also experimenting with milkweed which has been shown to have an impact on reducing lanternflies.
Both Basile and Jurney have many new ideas bubbling- from a Growing Gardeners Program for new gardeners to a Tomato Growing Program to themed beds like a Pizza Garden or Medicinal Herb Garden. In the future they would love to create programming for the entire community- even those without planting beds. With the right resources and collaborations, the gardens could offer programs focused on vegetable and native gardening at home, therapeutic horticulture and garden-based activities for youth to seniors in town.
Whether you consider yourself a gardener, or are just curious, everyone is welcome to visit these two gems in New Castle. While you are there, you might learn a thing or two about gardening, get inspired to go deeper or just enjoy the natural beauty. According to Basile, there is a whole cohort of people in the community who are not members but come down just to see what is going on in the garden. Seeds are always being planted!
For more information on membership or to get involved with programming please reach out to Joan at joan.basile@gmail.com and Mike at mike@jurney.org
