For Beth Langford, the garden plot provides an exercise on the road to relaxation.
For Tammy and Dan Collinsworth, sharing produce from two plots cultivated in memory of a lost son provides comfort.
Teresa Pennington of the Vandalia Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees the community garden, said the city offered garden plots in the 1980s and early 1990s before the program ended.
Today’s version was the result of a revival in 2012 at the recommendation of the Vision 2020 Committee and the city Park Advisory Board.
The garden at Jeffers Park started with 10 plots open to city residents for $25 per plot. The city parks maintenance department tills and stakes each 15-foot by 20-foot plot. A water source was added in 2013, and a garden Facebook page started this season.
The Collinsworths have participated in the community garden for three years in memory of their son, Brent Collinsworth. A 2005 graduate of Vandalia Butler High School and the Culinary Institute of America, Brent died in 2010.
Noting that their son “loved to give people things, to better someone’s life,” Tammy Collinsworth said most of the produce of the Collinsworths’ labors is donated to the Vandalia food bank and other locations such as assisted living facilities.
“We felt it was a way to live in Brent’s honor,” she said.
She said their plots are filled with high yield produce such as tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. She also accepts extra produce from other community gardeners and coworkers for donation to those in need.
Langford is a Vandalia-Butler graduate who grew up in a family that had a one-half acre garden. She returned to the area from Texas and New York in 2012.
“I’ve always liked to garden since I was a kid,” she said. She saw information on the community garden in the city newsletter.
“I jumped at the chance,” signing up for a plot without looking at the land, she said.
Langford is active on the garden Facebook page, sharing her experiences with those having questions. “That is what I think community means, helping others,” she said.
Among things growing in her garden are yellow squash, corn, carrots, tomatoes, marigolds/zinnias, chocolate mint herbs, potatoes, onions and garlic.
“I have always had my hands in the dirt. I don’t even mind the weeding,” Langford said. “You get focused on that, and everything else fades away.”
For more information on the Vandalia Community Garden, call 937-415-2353.
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