Staff Writer

The groundhog may have predicted an early spring but plants have been in bloom for months at the St. Cloud Community Garden.

On the former site of a now-demolished drug house behind St. Cloud City Hall, leeks, cabbage, swiss chard and collards have pushed through the dirt and spread their delicious leaves despite the below freezing temperatures experienced this winter.

“This is Osceola County. We’ve got to bring farming back, with an updated twist,” Jacquie Dombovy, one of three city of St. Cloud Parks and Recreation Beautification Division employees who works in the garden, said. “We want to teach people and empower them to grow their own food.”

The garden is funded through the Parks and Recreation Department’s operating budget on property the city had previously purchased.

“Most resources we already had on hand,” Kim Duffy, landscape beautification manager, said. “We just did some juggling.”

The community garden is unlike similar garden projects used for educational purposes for local students the city manages at Peghorn Nature Center and Hopkins Park.

Three elements of the community garden aim to bring residents together, provide exercise and recreation and offer residents a way to grow healthy vegetables and herbs themselves. It’s also an opportunity for residents living in apartments and homeowners associations to engage in gardening.

The first element, available to all residents free, is the edible culinary herb landscaping planted at the front entrance.

“The more you chop them, the better they grow.” Duffy said.

Another complimentary feature, geared toward those residents wanting to ease into gardening, Dombovy said, is the container swap. Using a concept similar to a library loaning books, the container swap allows residents to take a container home to raise a plant and then swap it out for another plant later.

The final feature – 25-square-foot garden plots – allows residents to choose what plants they want to grow and care for by weeding, fertilizing and harvesting any edible plants.

“Once you taste your homegrown food, it makes it more difficult to buy it,” Duffy said.

The plots, which cost $25 for six months and  includes two harvests, come with everything but the seeds or plants. Gardeners also are solely responsible for weeding and watering. An equipment shed on the property provides gardeners with the tools they may need.

Dombovy plans to incorporate several classes through the garden, including cooking, preserving and canning vegetables as well as instructions on fertilizing, such as using worms, and pollination by planting sweet-smelling plants to attract bees and ladybugs.

“We want to educate people on how to use (the plants) as well,” she said.

Duffy and Dombovy will help gardeners select the proper vegetables and herbs for the season, such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peas for spring, and encourage gardeners to swap their harvests to get a little bit of everything.

“If you’re willing to put a little bit of work into it, it’s so rewarding. The food tastes better (than store-bought),” Dombovy said. “You can’t get any better than that. People without experience shouldn’t be afraid to give it a go.”

Dombovy said in addition to offering a local food source, the garden also beautifies the town, provides educational opportunities and gets young people outside and into the dirt.

Engaging young people in the garden is part of Duffy’s plan.

“The minute you put a trowel in their hands and some seeds – they seems to get a charge out of watching broccoli grow and are more likely to eat it,” she said. “We’ll get them off the computer and into the Earth.”

City officials plan to finalize the garden contracts this month. Residents seeking additional information and who want to sign up for a plot can contact the city at 407-957-7243.