After an incredible Earth Day weekend, the Portsmouth Community Garden is one giant step closer to launch. On Earth Day itself, two shifts of enthusiastic volunteers from Lonza Biologics took up the power tools and built the first phase of garden beds (25 in total), providing recommendations for process improvements along the way. Another group began to prepare the heavy cardboard for the walkways and started the wheelbarrow brigade to position the woodchips. Later in the day, the muddy and physically challenging work of the rodent barrier preparation and installation began.
The very next day, April 23, a large crew from the Portsmouth Rotary Club literally dug into the hard work of loading and filling many wheelbarrows with soil and transferring the soil to the garden beds. Another group prepared the heavy cardboard for the walkways and started another wheelbarrow brigade to position the woodchips. Experience with heavy machinery helped and many took turns loading soil and helping move the dirt and turf over the rodent barrier to complete a large section of the fence work.
The Board of Directors is delighted with the community involvement, both volunteer and fundraising, for phase 1 of the garden. Thank you to all who have donated and volunteered!
Visit the Donate/Donor tab to check out our supporters. Phase 2 includes a shed, rain barrels, picnic tables, additional beds, benches and more. For now, we will focus on phase 1, finish the remaining work in the next few weeks and enjoy the garden!
Join us for an Opening Day ceremony on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. Members will receive their bed assignment, and are welcome to start their gardens. Community members are welcome to check out the garden on that day!