Physical Therapy in Victory Gardens, NJ

So, you want to plant a garden? You’re not alone.

As New Jersey enters another week of the statewide stay-at-home order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a budding number of people stuck inside are trying something new: growing fruits and vegetables in their backyards.

But how do you safely garden in the Garden State, which has a legacy of contaminated land from its industrial past?

Experts say homebodies are eager for fresh produce. Gardening businesses are busier than ever. More people are calling county centers with questions about home gardening. And the National Gardening Association even created a guide for gardening during the pandemic.

With nurseries and garden centers deemed essential in the state, gardening is a recreational activity for people of all ages that helps pass time. Others may be picking up gardening because they want to be more self-sufficient — a theme some compare to the victory gardens of World Wars I and II, when a food crisis resulted in a nationwide campaign that urged people to start home gardens.

Christopher Leishear, owner of Glen Rock-based Farmburbia, which builds raised garden beds and similar structures for people at home, said business has taken off since the start of the pandemic. He started the company about five years ago after he noticed a demand for at-home gardening in suburban Bergen County, but most people didn't know where to start.

“Especially now with COVID, there seems to be even more people interested in self-sufficiency and sustainability," Leishear said. "People don’t want to go out like they used to. Not that having a few raised beds in your backyard can eliminate your ability to go to the grocery store, but it can contribute to you having fresh produce throughout the late spring, summer and fall — and people have just really taken to it.”

April, May and June are usually Farmburbia's busiest months, Leishear said. However, some of his larger projects that require multiple people have been delayed because of social distancing guidelines. The backlog of orders is likely to keep him busy through July and possibly into August.

Experts say that raised beds and gardening with containers or pots are safe and convenient options for those unsure about contaminants in their soil.

Safety concerns: Some gardening tips and tricks

New Jersey, with its long list of Superfund sites and plots requiring cleanup by the state, has plenty of contaminated land. That's why soil is usually tested for contaminants before a garden is planted. Any would-be gardener who wants to know the history of their land before starting a garden should contact their local town hall, experts suggest. Municipal offices should have the history of all properties in town.

When brownfields are being reclaimed for gardening, organizations will run a soil test first, said Michelle Infante-Casella, a county agent for Rutgers' Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County. The test usually looks for contaminants such as lead. A gardener could have their home's soil tested by commercial labs. Search online for environmental labs or soil testing labs, and follow the instructions, Infante-Casella recommended.

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Anyone concerned about the safety of their land, or with limited space for a garden, can turn to container planting. Some vegetables that grow well in pots or containers include tomatoes, pepper plants, lettuce, onions and root vegetables like radishes or carrots.

"Just make sure you figure out by reading or looking on the seed packet or investigating how large a plant will get before you put it in a container," Infante-Casella said. "A container may only be able to hold one plant because it grows too large."

Story continues below photo gallery

Bruce Crawford, Rutgers' statewide horticulture coordinator who is transitioning from his years-long role as director of Rutgers Gardens, said container gardens don't have to be high maintenance.

"You could use an old barbecue base. You can improvise with an old galvanized container and put some holes in the bottom of it and grow anything from squash to tomatoes to lettuce to beets," Crawford said. "You don’t need actually to have a plot of land, as long as you have a sunny balcony or porch or something of that nature — a front door stoop. You can grow vegetables there."

The demand for at-home gardening has been so great, Crawford said, that the state university is preparing to roll out evening question-and-answer sessions on Facebook. He anticipates interest to continue through the summer.

Right now is prime time to plan your garden, experts said. May is typically the peak gardening season in the Garden State, since the "frost free" date in New Jersey is around May 15. That's the date when soil temperatures are warm enough for vegetables and other plants to survive underground.

"Starting next week almost everything can start being planted because we won’t have frost anymore for the season," Infante-Casella said.

There are other basic tips expert gardeners advise newbies to follow: find a location with lots of sunlight; ensure proper drainage for plants by avoiding an area that puddles, or by poking holes at the bottom of a container; try your hand at some of the easier crops first, like beets or beans.

“My advice is just to start," said Leishear. "Start small — a few container pots on your deck or your patio or even in your window sill. You can cut a stem of basil, drop it in a glass of water, and in seven to 10 days later, it has roots and it’s growing in size. So, you don’t need a lot of space."

There are also lots of guides online for first-time gardeners. Rutgers offers an online curriculum and helpful fact sheets. Princeton and Cornell also offer resources online. Duke Farms in Hillsborough has been hosting classes through Zoom to teach gardeners about vegetable seed starting and container gardening. The National Gardening Association, which tracks the growth of gardening nationwide and offers countless resources online, has a tool that outlines frost dates for planting based on zip-codes.

Dave Whitinger, the association's executive director, said traffic to the group's website has grown by 114% this year. About 700,000 people visited the organization's website last week, compared to about 290,000 the same week last year. The increase in demand has been felt across the industry, he added.

"I’ve talked to many, many companies in the industry and everybody’s reporting that they’re essentially selling everything that they have," Whitinger said. "Nobody has to advertise their products right now, because nobody is having trouble selling. Many of the seed companies are completely out of stock."

Experts tout several advantages to gardening at home: higher quality food, more variety in the types of food you consume, food security in your own backyard, exercise, stress relief, and family bonding

"When you have a young child start a seed that they watch grow, a lot of times the children will be more apt to eat something that they grew," Infante-Casella said.

Crawford, the Rutgers horticulture coordinator, said that if families make home gardening a part of their daily routine, we may see a permanent shift to the practice.

"I do anticipate certainly for the next couple of decades that there will be a greater interest in backyard gardening and maintaining a degree of self-sufficiency from a food standpoint," Leishear said.

Melanie Anzidei is the retail reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about store openings and closings in North Jersey’s biggest malls, shopping centers and downtowns, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Dear Residents,

Right now, farm stands display bushels overflowing with freshly-picked, local fruit and vegetables, especially ‘Jersey’ tomatoes! Rich in flavor, tenderness, and juiciness, vine-ripened tomatoes from New Jersey are the best in the world!

Randolph enjoys a rich farming history. Randolph’s first citizens made their living directly or indirectly (millers, blacksmiths, storekeepers, tanners, coopers) from the land. This way of life was characteristic of rural America in the 19th century.

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Fertile Randolph land provided local farmers with an abundance of vegetable and grain crops, peach and apple orchards, and dairy farms. In 1806 – the first year records were kept – the municipal tax assessor identified one-hundred farms in Randolph.

While barely a handful of these farms still exist today, it is only natural that Randolph would someday have its own community garden. The number one past time in the United States, gardening was already very popular in Randolph.

The introduction of a community garden in Randolph epitomized residents identifying a new recreational opportunity, forming a committee of interested volunteers, researching the options, and seeing it through to completion. The community garden movement began with the victory gardens during World War II, when Americans began growing fruits and vegetables in backyards, empty lots, even rooftops to supplement rationed foods.

Randolph’s community garden committee was formed in 2011 and was tasked to evaluate other local municipal community garden efforts and to determine if there was a sustaining interest in Randolph for a community garden. Analysis of other municipal community gardens included the size and number of planting beds, what resources are provided, whether the garden should be organic, and fencing requirements. Years of volunteer effort resulted in the inclusion of a community garden in Randolph Township’s 2016 Parks and Recreation Master Plan followed by site selection in the soon-to-be-developed Veterans Community Park.

Randolph’s community garden is located in the new Veterans Community Park on Calais Road. Veterans Community Park has been recognized with the Morris Park Alliance facility award in 2022 and the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association (NJRPA) 2023 Excellence in Design Award for a Multi-Use Facility in 2023.

Opened in 2020, Randolph’s community garden consists of 168 organic planting beds, each measuring six feet wide by fourteen feet long. Members of all ages and all skill levels from beginners just getting started with gardening through experienced master gardeners each pay a $40 annual fee per planting bed to cover all the expenses of running the community garden, including garden tools, mulch, compost, and water. More than just a planting bed rental, your community garden membership affords you an opportunity to meet some great new friends with whom you can learn and share.

New community garden members are required to participate in an orientation program – topics covered include organic gardening best practices, bug and weed control, and gardener expectations. Periodic meetings are held to cover interesting gardening topics, and there are also walk-and-talk programs where gardeners walk around the garden and share gardening experiences and ideas. Gardeners regularly review bug reports from Rutgers University.

The community garden has proven to be an excellent addition to Randolph’s already extensive list of successful recreation opportunities and has grown to include a pollinator garden in 2021. The garden is also home to blue bird houses, a seed-sharing cabinet, and park benches to enjoy the serenity of the garden with a neighbor and an ice tea. In the spirit of giving back, gardeners have partnered with the Randolph Food Pantry and the Interfaith Food Pantry providing hundreds of pounds of fresh produce annually.

Gardening is considered exercise by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and getting involved with a community garden is an enjoyable means of producing your own food while sharing your gardening passion and expertise with your neighbors.

Please contact the Randolph Township Department of Parks and Recreation at 973-989-7081 to learn more about Randolph’s community garden.

Now more than ever, it is important to stay informed. On the front page of our Township website there is a button labeled “Stay Informed!” If you click on it, you can sign up for Township information broadcast systems and view news, events, and emergency notices.

If I can assist you in any way, please reach out to me. My contact information is located on the Township website. Stay safe, and enjoy everything that Randolph has to offer!

Regards,

Lou Nisivoccia

Mayor, Randolph Township 2023

Klaas Vogel’s gardening roots stretch back to World War II in the Netherlands; his grandfather, who started gardening to be self-sufficient during war-recovery efforts, passed down his skill and passion to Klaas.

The retired electrical engineer blends those traditional methods with his own expertise in his Monroe, N.Y., garden. He uses spreadsheets to plan and calculate the most efficient way to plot his produce each year, and installed custom-designed fencing that keeps critters out, but can easily be rolled back by human hands.

And despite this summer’s heat, rain and smoke, Vogel’s backyard plots are flourishing with lettuce, beans, celery, eggplant, peppers, spinach, herbs, onions, tomatoes and more.

Vogel’s veggie patch is one of more than a dozen unique food gardens to see during the annual Kitchen Garden Tour, happening Sunday, Aug. 13. The one-day event invites locals to step into their neighbors’ backyards to explore fruit and vegetable plots while learning tips and tricks from the gardeners.

Afterwards, event attendees meet up with the gardeners at Meadow Blues in Chester, N.Y. for an after party, where they nosh on farm-to-table food and drinks, and vote for their favorite local veggie patches.

A taste for gardening

Vogel’s garden took home the Editor’s Choice Award from last year’s tour.

The Andersen family’s Warwick, N.Y. garden, which took home the award for Most Hospitable Garden in 2017, is also participating this year. Mike and Erin Andersen are currently growing tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, cucumbers and a variety of berries and grape vines. In past seasons, a single grape vine produced two dozen jars of jelly for the family.

They’re most proud of their fruit trees this year, which are producing peaches, plums, pears and apples. But Erin’s favorite crops are the berry bushes.

“It’s the best thing to go out in the yard and grab a handful of fresh berries,” said Erin.

Vogel agrees that the effort is worth the produce. “The main reason to grow is the taste - that is so much better than the stuff from the supermarkets,” he said.

Learn gardening tips and secrets from the Andersens, Klaas Vogel, and a dozen more local backyard food growers at this year’s Kitchen Garden Tour.

Tickets are available now at kitchengardentours.com or by calling 845-469-9000.

In April, we were so starved for life and living that we saved a sprouted cooking onion, named it the Hope Onion, and grew it in a vase indoors where we could watch its pale roots get long and tangled. Meanwhile, The New York Times called us “scallion nation,” and people on the Internet thought we all should be victory gardeners again.

At the Fenway Victory Gardens on a recent Sunday in May, Brenda Velez, in overalls and a mask, was working her plot.

“I got my seeds ready,” Velez said. “I’m ready to go.”

There are real victory gardeners in Boston already — 405 of them, down on the Fens, tending 15-by-25-foot plots where their own onions have deep roots in the historic ground, where the radishes are up, the lilacs in bloom, and the resurrection in full swing.

Community gardens have been allowed to remain open during the shutdown, and this of course includes the Fenway Victory Gardens. Established in 1942, it is the nation’s oldest surviving war garden. On the original 7.5 acres along the Muddy River, just one block from Fenway Park, it endures.

During World War II, the Fenway Victory Gardens was one of 49 planted all over the city, including on Boston Common. A neighboring piece of land on the Fenway was even maintained as a “model victory garden” by the Globe, which published lengthy front-page articles about its progress.

Victory gardens famously produced 44 percent of Americans’ wartime fruits and vegetables. Some 2,600 families participated in Boston, 20 million nationwide, according to “To Dwell Is to Garden: A History of Boston’s Community Gardens” by Sam Bass Warner Jr.

“I can’t even tell you how exciting it is to be part of that [history],” said Velez, 54, a visual merchandiser who designs store displays and whom the pandemic has forced out of a job.

“I feel like this is another war, a different one. We’re still there [at the Victory Gardens]. We’re not going anywhere,” she said. “We’re still out there with Mother Earth, making the most of things.”

Americans have gardened through many of the great crises in our history, and those without their own land have planted on public property.

During the depression of the 1890s, Mayor Hazen Pingree created potato patch gardens for Detroit’s unemployed. In Boston in 1895, 52 men and two women each harvested some 20 to 55 bushels of potatoes on land the Industrial Aid Society for the Prevention of Pauperism secured, Warner wrote. Similar efforts were restarted during the Great Depression — relief gardens, thrift gardens.

Unlike the victory gardens of World Wars I and II, these gardens are little known today. Poverty is light on propaganda, heavy on potatoes.

Many temporary gardens — glorified and not — simply vanished after the time of need. Not on the Fens, where gardeners adapted to peacetime, mounting a successful campaign at the mayor’s office and shifting production from food to flowers.

“As far as is known, there is no identical project in this country,” late cofounder Richard D. Parker wrote in a typescript preserved at the Massachusetts Historical Society. “It is indeed an outstanding privilege to have a garden in The Fenway.”

Many of today’s gardeners live nearby, in small homes made even smaller by stay-at-home advisories. Christine Nelson, 34, a pharmacist, told me her victory garden is actually bigger than the Fenway apartment she shares with her husband.

Walking the Victory Gardens’ narrow, wood-chipped lanes is an intimate affair. One peers not into conventional community garden plots, but into the vast outdoor living rooms of the little-apartment people. There are couches and benches and chairs, and lawns as smooth as area rugs. Shiny bric-a-brac catching the thin, early morning sun. A statue of Jizo, the Japanese splinter-removing god. All kinds of things, a vast collection — every gardener’s own mark.

“A lot of people refer to it as a large backyard,” said Gerald Cooper, 77, who is keeping busy building a brick patio in the back of the plot he’s had for more than 20 years.

“I’m there every day, five or six hours at least. Even when there’s rain, I’ll think about going. I usually debate about whether to go down there in the rain or stay in the apartment and clean it up,” he said. “I usually go down there in the rain.”

The gardens are not unchanged. Veterans say there’s a kind of uneasiness now, with old friends and neighbors in masks, 6 feet or more away. Some are converting their plots back to their original purpose.

“Before the pandemic we had a lot of gardeners that were raising perennials, flowers, and some herbs,” said Elizabeth Bertolozzi, Fenway Victory Gardens president. “[Now] people are really determined to do some additional vegetable gardening, because every little bit helps and they’re just concerned that maybe they could put their plots to better use.”

Rick Richter, vice president of the Victory Gardens, is planting an all-vegetable crop for the first time. He’s got 150 tomato plants started in his small apartment.

“I’ve got grow lights all over the place and plants all over,” Richter, 64, explained from home. “It’s going to be a little jungle in here, so I’m really hoping for some warm weather pretty soon.”

The Trustees of Reservations, which manages 56 Boston community gardens (although not the Fenway Victory Gardens, a nonprofit on city land), reports a surge in requests for plots this spring. Applications have doubled. And even in good times, there are not enough plots to meet demand.

“The major role of food access is of course highlighted in this economically insecure time,” said Michelle de Lima, who is the engagement manager for The Trustees’ community gardens. “[But] I don’t think realistically the majority of those people are [gardening] because they have no other way to get food. I think they’re doing it because they’re going a little crazy and they need something positive and hopeful in their lives.”

Zachary Nowak, a historian of urban agriculture and a Harvard College fellow, agreed.

“As far as victory gardens becoming the source of everyone’s food, I don’t know,” he said. “But those people … who just grow flowers and flowering bushes … are giving a much more important gift to the rest of us in the city — and that’s just hope, straight up.”

Scott Zak is one such victory gardener. The 58-year-old Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center nurse grows only flowers in the sunbaked plot he’s had for 25 years: marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, and three colors of statice: purple, white, and blue.

He works in the organ transplant unit, so he cannot bring flowers into the hospital, but sometimes he’ll take pictures for his patients.

He said that even in a non-COVID-19 unit, the situation at Beth Israel is very tense.

“It’s horrible. Everything you see on TV is accurate,” he reported. “We were having a meeting among nurses and other staff members — kind of, like, get in touch of how we’re dealing with stress — and the social worker says, ‘Does anyone have any ways of dealing with stress?’ Everyone kind of looked at each other, like, not really, you know, just grin and bear it. And then one of the nurses said, ‘Well, Scott, you have your garden, don’t you?’ ”

Gardens created for war have become a refuge from a new plague and new problems.

“It doesn’t mean to say that you go there and you forget that everything is happening,” explained Marie Fukuda, 54, a victory gardener on the Fens and a project coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital. “But it’s a reminder that there’s a pace of things that will continue regardless of whether we continue — and although that sounds weird, it’s also very comforting.”

After 24 years, “I can go out there and the same pesky weed that drives me crazy is coming up at around the same time it always does,” Fukuda said.

In springs and summers past, Seth Kilgore, a 64-year-old John Hancock Financial Services employee, could be seen walking from the garden to his South End apartment with a bucketful of fresh-cut flowers: peonies, zinnias, sunflowers.

Daffodils are his favorites, and over the past two decades he’s accumulated a large collection. Many are hand-me-downs from other victory gardeners who have moved out or moved on.

This spring there were flowers, but no gardener.

“We’ve missed the daffodils this year,” Kilgore said. His wife’s at high risk, so he hasn’t been down to his garden at all. “But there’ll be other years.”

Gene Tempest is a Cambridge-based writer and historian. Read more of her work at genetempest.com and get in touch at [email protected].

nourish.NJ Director of Development, Nancy Rudgers, pictured with volunteer, Howard Buxbaum. Photo Credit: nourish.NJ

nourish.NJ CEO, Teresa Connolly, unveils details of nourish.NJ’s expansion plans.Photo Credit: nourish.NJ

Doug Kennedy, President and CEO of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, recounts his meaningful experiences with nourish.NJ.Photo Credit: nourish.NJ

nourish.NJ Director of Development, Nancy Rudgers, pictured with volunteer, Howard Buxbaum. Photo Credit: nourish.NJ

By nourish.NJ

Last UpdatedMay 17, 2022 at 1:14 PM

nourish.NJ, a Morris County nonprofit that has worked for over three decades to provide lasting solutions to hunger, homelessness and poverty, hosted its annual Share the Bounty event on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at the Rockaway River Country Club. Attendees celebrated the organization’s geographic and programmatic expansion plans, highlighting the recent purchase of a building in Victory Gardens, NJ, which will serve as nourish.NJ’s new hub of operations. The organization also plans to increase its presence and services in Morristown.

Tom Mulhare, Chair of nourish.NJ’s Expansion Campaign Committee kicked off the event, introducing Teresa Connolly, CEO, who unveiled details of nourish.NJ’s expansion plans. She shared that after extensive renovations, the new building will house a commercial kitchen, community programming space, and counseling offices. Connolly shed light on the urgent and growing need for services in relation to increased costs of day-to-day living, exclaiming nourish.NJ’s plans to address this need through increased housing, mental health and medical case-management services, as well as the launch of mobile Free Farmers Markets in underserved communities throughout Morris County. Additionally, she shared that the expansion plans include a new vocational training and job placement program that will target those with the highest barriers to employment. Doug Kennedy, President and CEO of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, then took the podium, recounting the meaningful experiences he has had volunteering with nourish.NJ and encouraging attendees to consider making a meaningful gift. Shari Hoffman, Chair of nourish.NJ’s Board of Trustees, ended the evening thanking everyone for their support and for making the event a tremendous success.

nourish.NJ accepts financial contributions to support its critical work in Morristown, Dover, Victory Gardens and throughout Morris County. To make a donation or learn more about how you can help, please visit www.nourishnj.org. For further information on nourish.NJ’s expansion plans or to find out how to get involved with the Campaign to Expand Our Reach, please contact Megan Campbell, Chief Development Officer, at [email protected].

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