Published: July 20, 2008 12:27 pm            

UPDATE — Community garden grows more than just plants

CHARLESTON — Carroll Terrace residents find that fresh tomatoes and peppers improve their diets and cut their food expenses.

But they value the friendships that grow in their gardens even more than the blossoms and bulbs.

Three years ago, in partnership with the West Virginia State University Extension Service, extension staff designed the garden on the grounds of Carroll Terrace, a unit of the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority on Charleston’s East End.

Corporate and community supporters donated their time and materials, such as trellises and raised beds, to build the garden structure now called the Carroll Terrace Community Garden.

For her efforts in the garden, Eleanor Derrick earned the nickname “Mother Nature.” Derrick and her fellow gardener Drema Dufault go for a walk each morning and then visit the garden.

“I try something different each year,” Derrick said. “This year I am trying rhubarb.”

Besides growing vegetables, Derrick said the garden “gets the residents out of their apartments. They stay in too much.”

Debbie Knox enjoys the garden for several reasons. “It makes you think about eating better,” she said. Why get fast food when you have fresh food growing before your eyes?

But her desire to learn more about gardening forced her to learn other things, too. “I did not know a thing about computers,” she said, as she showed off the vegetables she is growing. “I did not even know how to turn a computer on.”

Now she searches the Internet to find out information about plants. An extension agent taught her how to use the computer, she said.

“This has been a learning experience, too,” Knox said. When she had her home on Lewis Street in Charleston, she had a large garden. “I gardened and grew everything. I shared a lot with my neighbors. Now that I am here, I like to come down in the garden, drink coffee and relax in the garden.”

Gardens can be passed on. After Carroll Terrace resident Charles Monk died, Karen Taylor and Rexel Grose continued to care for his plot. Staff members at Carroll Terrace also garden.

        

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