Now that a six-month lack of water has been solved, the GROWL Garden in College Park is growing again — up and out.
The 52 raised plots of the GROWL Garden — which stands for Growing Real Opportunities in Work and Life — at the Camp Truitt 4-H Educational Center only cover a small portion of its allotted three acres. But one area is already marked for expansion, and garden coordinator Judy Jackson Raines wants to see it get much bigger.
“We’re trying to move from those 52 plots to an actual farm,” she said.
Until recently, however, more than the expansion was on hold. The garden lacked a water supply for six months.
Raines addressed Fulton County commissioners about it May 1. Joe Davis, the county’s real estate director, said the problem was a broken faucet. And a fallen tree blocked access just before county workers could replaced it.
Davis said the tree was scheduled for removal that week.
Raines said the lack of water wasn’t an urgent problem until the weather began heating up.
“Thirty-five families eat from that garden,” she said. A dozen gardeners are seniors or disabled, and there’s no good way to bring in water from outside, Raines said.
On Saturday, master gardeners Valda McCall and Dolores Walker walked between the wooden-walled garden beds, on fabric recently laid down to stop weeds. They stopped by one bed overflowing with squash plants.
“This particular gardener will have to come out and clean it up, tie the plants or trim them back,” McCall said.
Credit: Jim Gaines
Credit: Jim Gaines
Almost all of the 52 plots are rented out, with some gardeners tending to more than one. At the front is a big patch of flowering plants to attract pollinators, and an herb garden is underway.
“If you come next year, all this will be filled in with plots,” Walker said, gesturing to a large space covered with fabric.
Mother and daughter Carolyn Dublin and Angela Knight are on their second year at the GROWL Garden. Dublin said she loves to watch things grow, loves her fellow gardeners, and “we learn from each other.”
This year their beds are growing kale, lemon cucumbers, spaghetti squash and summer squash, tomatoes and several varieties of thyme.
“We pulled the beets and carrots already,” Dublin said.
Knight said at first she just came to help her mother.
“But since I’ve been doing it, I discovered that I actually love gardening,” she said. “It’s actually relaxing just to be out here with nature, tending to your garden.”
All the gardeners are Fulton County residents, Raines said. They usually meet to work on their plots the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, she said.
Outside the existing plots and the fabric-covered ground, the rest of the area needs to be cleared bit by bit, Raines said. She wants to keep it divided into small, no-till sections for individual gardeners.
Raines would love to start a fruit arbor and vineyard, and would like to have an apiary if she can find a beekeeper, she said.
“The bottom line is, we just want to feed people, and we want people to learn how to feed themselves,” Raines said.
The garden started nearly a decade ago under a joint UGA Cooperative Extension and 4-H program for teens, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
When that grant ended in 2019, the extension service sought to keep the garden going. Now it’s officially a teaching garden where South Fulton Master Gardeners can offer help and advice.
Raines became a master gardener in 2020, and became the garden coordinator a year or two after that.
Plots cost $50 to $65, and rentals last for one year. Some plots are wheelchair accessible. Some tools are provided. Plots have to be maintained at least once a week. If they are not, and the gardener ignores notices, the plot may be cleaned out and reassigned. To reserve a bed in the GROWL Garden, call 404-762-4085.
The GROWL Garden is one of two community gardens in Fulton County. The other is the North Fulton Community Garden at 7741 Roswell Road, next to the North Fulton Government Service Center.
