Room to Grow: An update on the Worland Community Garden

Located at Newell Sargent Park in Worland, the Worland Community Garden continues its expansion project this fall.

Garden Manager Ivy Asay is a Thermopolis native who graduated from high school in 2014. She attended college in Provo, Utah, where she obtained a degree in landscape management and met her husband, Dr. Stephen Asay. She later returned to the area she grew up in, settling in Worland where her husband works as a general practitioner for Hot Springs Health and as the Washakie County public health officer.

Three years ago after moving to Worland, Ivy became involved in the Community Garden Board of Directors, a group of volunteers that dedicate themselves to two-year terms of overseeing the garden. She said, "When we first moved here, I had known Janet Hofmann for a lot of years, and she was the president of the Community Garden Board, and she was excited to be working with the garden and wanted to get me involved. So I've been on the board for three years, and it was just last year that I took a more active role. It's been good; I really am passionate about it and I think it's a really important cause that we are working towards. I want to be able to help people in our community so I've been really excited to work here."

Given her background in landscape management and enthusiasm for agriculture, Asay has been a great fit for overseeing this project in her first year. "It pretty much entails taking care of the whole garden. In my head I've broken it down into three categories - production, so we have plants and starts to plant in the spring; then there's maintaining and cultivating all of the produce so we have an abundant harvest; there's obviously a lot of weeding and maintenance that goes on to keep the garden tidy. Then especially during our expansion, a lot of my time has been spent on new projects, things that will make our operation more efficient," said Asay.

PRODUCTION

Although she has to split her time between caring for the plants, maintenance and new projects, and despite some adversity early in the growing season, the garden has had quite a lot of success this year, according to Asay. She said, "It's been pretty good. We've had a couple of things that have struggled this year, like the cucumbers, despite being like a bumper crop for us last year, and we've had some struggles with our tomatoes because of the high heat they got early in their growth which delayed their fruiting. We've also had a lot of great successes; our winter squash are doing great, last week I harvested 340 pounds of squash in one day and there's still tons more out there. It's been a really great year for melons, too. Our honeydews and cantaloupes have done great. I think it's been a successful year despite some of the setbacks we encountered. You can't control the weather, so we just have to deal with it and do what we can. It's been nice to have such a productive harvest and also be able to get so many of these projects done that are going to make next year even more successful."

Asay said that between eight varieties of peppers, 12 kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of watermelons, four other melons, three kinds of summer squash, eight kinds of winter squash, three kinds of cucumbers, two kinds of potatoes, and peas, green beans, garlic, onions, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage, the garden has currently brought in around 2,750 pounds of various produce for the season. She said the number will surely exceed 3,000 pounds once she harvests the remaining winter squashes and melons. Although Asay originally had a goal of producing 4,000 pounds out of the garden, she anticipates that it won't get there this year due to poor harvests from some crops she expected to do better.

Asay added, "Some of the produce we harvest doesn't contribute much to the weight; for example we had a super abundant harvest of jalapenos, but that doesn't add much in that overall number, but you still want to have those things for the sake of variety that we offer to people."

DISTRIBUTION

Washakie County Conservation Education Director and President of the community garden's board of directors, Janet Hofmann detailed what the garden does with the produce it generates. From the garden, all the produce is taken to the University of Wyoming Extension Office, attached to the same building as the Worland Community Center Complex at 1200 Culbertson Avenue.

The extension office participates in the Wyoming Hunger Initiative's Grow a Little Extra program, in which local gardeners who produce more than what meets their needs can donate extra produce and make sure it goes to someone who can use it.

From there, the extension office will deliver produce to local entities such as O.W.L. Unlimited, the Washakie County Ministerial Center Food Pantry, the Worland Crisis Prevention and Response Center, the Worland Senior Center, various assisted living facilities, the Lighthouse Adult Crisis Center and others. Those who are independently seeking free produce are also welcome to visit the Extension office; they only ask that you don't take more than what you need. Call the Extension office at 307-347-3431 to find out more. When you pick up produce, you can also make a donation that will go toward the operation of the garden, which is currently only funded by these donations and grant funds.

EXPANSION

Asay and many volunteers - often residents of the Wyoming Boys' School - were hard at work to get some new additions built for this growing season that aided in the success of the harvest this year.

She said that many rows of planter boxes were completed in the spring, built on top of weed barrier. This has resulted in tidy crop rows with paths between them and minimizes time spent killing weeds. Asay said that thanks to the Boys' School, several raised planters were also built earlier this year. Some were used for late-season transplants that have done very well this year, mainly producing more squash. These raised beds are ideal for people with limited mobility to be able to contribute to the garden. Asay said, "I think our ultimate goal is to have removable covers we can put over top of them in the spring and fall, and they will function like little domes that can continue our goal of lengthening our growing season."

Now looking ahead to projects for next year's season, Asay said the main difference will be the size expansion; the City of Worland has given land to the community garden that extends it to the northern edge of Newell Sargent Park, nearly doubling the size. A fence is currently under construction to house the new garden area. Hofmann said that a majority of the grant funds are designated for infrastructure, going toward this fence and the eventual construction of ADA-compliant pathways to ensure accessibility in the garden.

The garden's board has a five-phase project laid out for the expansion, and says that they are still in phase one. This phase has not been fully funded yet, but Hofmann said they have made significant progress toward moving on to phase two. The garden receives much of its funding through the Conservation District and the Wyoming Hunger Initiative. A large grant from the Ellbogen Foundation has been funding the fencing project for the land expansion, as well as replacing old fencing.

Along with the size expansion, the garden will gain access to power that comes from the neighboring pump the City of Worland uses to irrigate the park. Asay said, "Whenever I have needed to run power tools out here, I've always had to lug around my little gas-powered generator, so that's going to be a huge help for me."

Once they are moved into the new space, Asay plans on installing in-ground rows and more planter box rows to immediately benefit from the new space. Down the line she said that they plan to dedicate the new north edge of the garden that faces the road to low maintenance perennials, such as fruit-bearing trees and bushes.

"I think we've got some good plans going that will continue through this season and go into the next that will be very good for us," said Asay.