Fresh From the Earth

Isles continues its community gardening tradition with a tour of renovated houses and gardens.

By: Megan Sullivan

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TIMEOFF/MEGAN SULLIVAN
Betty Fleming, in charge of the community garden on Chestnut Avenue in Trenton for the past 10 years, shows off one of her zucchini plants.


   In a vacant lot on Chestnut Avenue in Trenton, weeds, beat up cars, tires and garbage piles had taken over. Residents of the adjacent Hollywood Avenue soon grew tired of looking out back only to see an unsightly junkyard.
   In the early ’70s, several residents decided to reclaim the open space and began transforming it into a garden. Betty Fleming, who moved from New York to the neighborhood in 1972, was given permission by the caretaker of the property on which she and her family lived to plant on a small plot of land. As each year went by, Ms. Fleming increased the size of her garden and shared the produce with the caretaker and neighbors.
   In 1982, Ms. Fleming decided to contact Isles, a nationally recognized community development and environmental organization, for assistance. The organization, which was founded in 1981 by Princeton University graduate Martin Johnson, helped to expand, clean and fence in the land. City water service was later installed and the garden obtained permanent open space status as a Green Acres site.
   The garden included community members from Chestnut, Hollywood and Faircrest avenues, so they named it "The Garden of Three Points." About 10 gardeners originally began growing vegetables, fruits and herbs on separate plots, and about 13 gardeners currently cultivate their produce here. The garden will be one of the stops on Isles’ 20th Annual House and Garden Tour June 30.
   Tourgoers will meet at Isles’ headquarters on Wood Street in Trenton and buses will make the rounds to a handful of gardens and rehabilitated homes in the area. The community gardeners will be on site to meet with guests and offer something to snack on, from grilled veggies to fruit salad, straight from the garden.
   In addition to fostering community development, the gardens provide residents with fresh produce they might not otherwise have access to. Small corner stores don’t usually carry many fresh fruits or vegetables, if any. And without a car, some people might not be able to shop at larger supermarkets that carry these healthy items. The gardens also provide the opportunity for residents to grow traditional foods unique to their particular cultures that can’t be found in most supermarkets. Once the crops are harvested, gardeners share their produce with friends and families in the community.
   At the start of each growing season, teams of draft horses or oxen from the Howell Living History Farm plow the garden on Chestnut Avenue. Elaine Kapusta, garden and nutrition manager at Isles, says the organization lends tools like rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows to the gardeners and also procures seeds or starter plants for their plots.
   Ms. Fleming, head gardener at Chestnut Avenue for the past 10 years, makes sure members maintain these plots. On a recent June afternoon, she walks through the sizeable garden and recites a long list of items that are growing this season: watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, squash, eggplant, string beans, cucumber, okra, callaloo, turnips, cabbage, collard greens, cilantro, mustard, radish, peanuts and more. This year, there is also a children’s garden, which includes sunflowers, corn and pumpkins.
   "I grew up on a farm, never to pick up a hoe again when I left," says Ms. Fleming, who is originally from South Carolina. "But for some reason, I did it again. It’s more fun now because I don’t have to do it."
   To add some color amidst all of the green leaves, a gardener named Eugene planted a small flower garden. Ms. Fleming would like to add rose bushes and other brightly colored shrubs for extra pizzazz. Grapevines hang nearby the flowerbed and Ms. Fleming spreads apart the cascading leaves to reveal a nice bunch of green grapes. Next to the grapevines, some strawberries are growing in the ground, and Ms. Fleming picks one from the vine and rolls it around in her palm for a bit. A few minutes later, she casually pops it in her mouth and savors its goodness.
   Special products in the garden include Ms. Fleming’s peanuts, which she grows from seeds she gets in South Carolina. How does she know when they’re ready to be plucked? "The squirrels really give us a notice," she says with a smile. At the end of the season, she boils and salts them for a delicious treat. Although they aren’t usually ready for picking until October, Ms. Fleming often freezes the peanuts and might serve some to guests during the tour.
   Isles’ gardening program, now 25 years old, was the organization’s original model in bringing people together and teaching them a skill they could carry on. Over the years, however, Isles has grown to incorporate a career center, community planning and research, financial self-reliance and real estate development programs.
   Its headquarters is located on the first floor of a building formerly occupied by a company that printed the bills for the New Jersey legislature. Isles converted the top two floors into housing units, refurbished surrounding homes and built a playground as part of its redevelopment efforts. One of the oldest community gardens in Trenton also is located diagonal to their building on Academy Street.
   Gardeners worked for months to clean debris and create the garden more than 20 years ago. This year, it has a new head gardener, Marvin Cerdas, who grew up on a farm in Costa Rica and moved to the United States in 1989. Andres Maldonado, who also has a plot in the garden, worked on a farm for 50 years in Puerto Rico before coming to the United States in 1995. The plot includes tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, cantaloupe, jalapeños, cilantro, green beans, cucumbers and sunflowers. Each day, Mr. Maldonado comes outside for a couple of hours to water and fertilize his plants. On a recent day, he and friends Jose Alvarez and Francisco Alfinez sat at a patio table within the fenced garden, chatting and taking in the fresh air.
   Isles supports about 35 gardens in the city, all former brownfield sites that have been successfully cleaned up by community members to improve the health and quality of urban life. Isles’ role is not to do these things for the community, but to help educate, organize and make the process accessible to local citizens.
   "We look for vacant land and for people who want to help us transform it," says Elyse Pivnick, vice president of environment and community health at Isles. "We don’t want to do it for anybody, the whole idea is to get people to help, have them take responsibility… we sound like parents, but it’s about getting people involved."
Isles’ 20th Annual House and Garden Tour will begin at 10 Wood St., Trenton, June 30, 3 p.m. Air conditioned buses and food and refreshments will be provided. Tickets cost $50 (benefits community programming), $15 under 12; RSVP by June 26; (609) 341-4739; www.isles.org