Iris Jones, who provided land for the Frog Alley Community Garden, and Michele Service, a founding member, are hoping more people in the neighborhood will take advantage of the opportunity to grow their own vegetables.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
Even after a long hot summer, the raised beds at the Frog Alley Community Garden in Delray Beach still have vines covered with green beans, bushes hung with jewel-like eggplants, and plenty of pineapple plants sipping sunlight as they develop their spikey fruit.
When you visit, you can wander the brick pathways, stopping on a bench shaded by a wooden pergola covered with passion fruit vines. Or you can do a little weeding while you enjoy the sounds of birds and insects buzzing in the warm air. A number of cats adopted by the members makes the garden home.
As you spend some time here, you’ll find that more than just organic fruits and vegetables are taking root in this garden.
“Our goal is to connect people with each other through the soil, to sow community through organic gardening,” says Pablo del Real, who is one of the founding members.
In fact, four years ago, when del Real was canvassing the neighborhood to talk to residents about his idea for a community garden, he met Iris Jones. A member of one of Delray’s founding families, Jones stepped up to offer a third of an acre to be used for the garden.
“I bought the land to build my dream house,” she says. “But through Pablo I got inspired to help others grow organic food.”
She named the garden after fond memories of her childhood in the area. She recalls that after a rain, the land would be covered with frogs. There were so many it inspired her father and grandfather to create concrete frog sculptures.
When she met del Real, he had just been informed by the city that another piece of land he’d wanted to use for the garden was off limits. He was very disappointed until Jones stepped up.
Her city lot held little more than a few oaks, a couple of mango trees and a lot of grass and weeds. Today that land provides an oasis for 30 garden members to grow their own in raised beds that range in size from about 16 to 64 square feet.
Jones has one where she grows kale, mustard greens and collards. “My community wants greens and they want a lot of them. Not those little bags you get at the grocery store for $2 or $3,” she says.
Joanna Sanguinetti comes from Lake Worth to tend two plots where even this time of year asparagus grow feathery fronds and marigolds bloom. Soon she’ll also plant radishes, Malabar spinach, black-eyed peas and watermelons, which did well last year.
The plots also offer places for people who live in condos and apartments to grow healthful and nutritious food crops. “That’s what I like about the garden … city folk can come out and plant what they like,” Jones says.
A bed raised on legs is labeled with a wooden sign that reads “Chiemeka’s Garden.” It was built for a young gardener who uses a wheelchair and couldn’t bend over to reach the ground, Sanguinetti says. Today the plot is available, as Chiemeka has gone off to college.
“We are so proud of her,” says founding member Michele Service, who lives in Delray Beach.
Just as the number of members grows, so does the garden. There are plans for adding honeybee hives. Volunteers have already built a wire mesh locker for keeping the hives safe.
“That’s what we are bragging about right now,” says Jones, who knows the bees will help pollinate the crops.
When cool air hints of the fall growing season in South Florida, you’ll see a lot more activity in the garden. Recently 30 FAU students volunteered to pull weeds, mulch and get the garden ready for planting. Volunteers also gather on Saturday mornings to tend to the garden’s needs.
Besides the member plots, the garden has common areas planted with things such as banana trees, star fruit, papayas, moringa and a sour sop.
The sour sop, which was a mere sapling when planted, has much meaning for Service, who grew up in Barbados. She felt this garden was the right place to plant a tree in memory of her little sister, who died about 20 years ago.
The variety of common crops gives community members a good reason to stop by and pick what they need. “Some like to come and sit and watch while others like to get dirty and dig in the soil,” says Jones. “The garden brings all these people together.”
Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.
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