A community vegetable garden is planned for Municipal Park, 27400 Southfield Road.
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LATHRUP VILLAGE — Whether you’re a gardening guru or a nature novice, the new community garden in Lathrup Village has space for you.
Recreation Coordinator Chris Clough said the garden will be located at Municipal Park, in an area next City Hall, 27000 Evergreen Road.
Clough said in an email that officials will break ground on the garden late this summer, and it will be ready for spring planting in 2021.
The garden will feature both leasable plots and space for cooperative gardening, and is open to all Lathrup Village residents and city employees. It’ll be overseen by the Lathrup Village Community Vegetable Garden Group and the Parks and Recreation Department, he said.
“A community vegetable garden has been a consistent request from residents for many years. One reason is that the town’s beautiful mature trees make many yards too shady for growing vegetables. Other residents want to try gardening for the first time in a low-risk environment. And some of our condo and apartment dwellers do not have yards at all,” Clough said.
Sandra Gross, a resident and the club’s president, said that before moving to Lathrup Village eight years ago, she used to grow vegetables in her backyard in Troy.
Due to the shade in her new yard, Gross said she was unable to grow her usual veggies.
“I was so disappointed. I have this lovely backyard and I can’t grow anything,” she said. “The deer and all the critters eat everything.”
Gross said she has been pitching the idea for years, and Clough decided to run with it.
“It turns out, other people were asking the same thing. It wasn’t just me. Other people were going to the city and saying we needed it, but it took a lot of asking until Chris put the plan in motion,” Gross said.
Residents can maintain their own private plot, Clough said, or participate in a cooperative plot. Excess vegetables grown in the cooperative plot are planned to be sold at weekly summer concerts and donated to a local shelter. At least two plots will be wheelchair accessible from both sides, he said.
Gross said the group is still in the early planning stages of the project.
“Part of it will be plots that you can rent for a fee and grow whatever you want, and part of it will be a cooperative thing where anybody who wants to can work in the garden,” Gross said.
Clough said it’ll cost the city $8,000 from the Parks and Recreation budget to operate the garden. The money will be used for site preparation, water access, deer-resistant fencing, materials for the raised beds, soil and mulch.
Gross said that group members have also discussed having a shed of tools for the community to use, and they are looking for gently used tools.
“We’ve called out for people who have tools and gardening items they no longer want,” she said. “People will be cleaning out their garages, and we’d like to have a shed full of tools that anybody can use.”
Interested residents can join the Lathrup Village Community Vegetable Garden Facebook group or contact Clough directly at recreation@lathrupvillage.org.
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July 22, 2020 at 03:03AM
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Community vegetable garden planned for empty plot in Lathrup Village - C&G Newspapers
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