The first community garden on the North Fork has reached a significant milestone. The Hallockville Museum Farm Community Garden on Sound Avenue in Riverhead is in the midst of its 20th season of producing several tons of produce every summer as well as blossoming friendships among those who have gardened here over the last two decades.
What was originally a mini patch of farmland producing only oversized champion pumpkins, is now overflowing with a colorful landscape of countless produce and flowers. Founder Jim Romansky of South Jamesport created the tiny startup community garden in 2007 which in the early days included only two plots, one of which was Jim’s, but it didn’t have any defense against deer, rabbits, and other vegetable loving critters. Now, surrounded by a deer fence, the community garden has expanded to 230 feet long and 90 feet wide of prime vegetable producing earth which is all organic.
Before the garden opened its gates, Romansky went west and south to Smithtown and Southampton to see what other community gardens were like. “Then we put together by-laws, researched insurance and we would till the soil, not use power tools so we wouldn’t ruin the natural order of things in the ground.”
Reminiscing about when he sowed his first cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and carrots two decades ago, Romansky never thought the garden would grow as big as it is now. “Wow! It’s amazing. It was a slow beginning. It was a lot of work most of which I did myself and then it caught on like crazy!” Due to health issues, Jim ended his time as the first community gardener here a few years ago.
The feeling at the beginning of the season – the hope gardeners have for their plot – is still with him. “It’s kind of neat. What was nice was when people used to trade secrets and we learned from each other.” When vacations kept gardeners away for a period of time, a green flag would go up on their garden, telling everyone it was ok to pick what they wanted while they were away. “You would always wish people would weed for you while you were on vacation, but that didn’t happen,” he laughed. Once Hallockville began to flourish, like some crops, word spread and soon community gardens sprouted in Southold, Riverhead and New Suffolk.ead and soon community gardens sprouted in Southold, Riverhead and New Suffolk.
Everyone here is a part-time farmer getting dirt under their fingernails while renting their 20 square foot parcels every season for a fee. Tilling, preparing the plots for planting in the spring, cleaning up and storing the tools in the winter are shared duties as all the farmers are volunteers. Plots are on a first-come, first-serve basis and must be reserved in advance.
All 36 spots, numbered with white signs, are sold out for this season and are being tended to by a nurturing blend of fledgling farmers and veterans. When there’s an abundance of crops, farmers go around to their neighbors offering the extras to anyone who wants them. Sharing this common ground, their love of and interest in gardening and raising their own vegetables is a strong bond.
Behind the historic houses and barns and sitting on the eastern edge of the farm museum in full sunlight, almost every mid-summer garden is brimming with tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, herbs, carrots, green beans, beets and lettuce and earlier in the season peas, while marigolds, cosmos, zinnias, dahlias, and sunflowers fill the flower parcels with vibrant summertime hues of yellows, pinks, reds, purples and oranges. And there is the occasional unique veggie being grown in some spaces including okra and artichokes.
One of the gardening gurus here is Marge McDonnell of Mattituck who first tilled the soil in her plot in 2008. “Deer were basically living in my kitchen at my house! Only kidding, but that coupled with a lot of trees and shade in my backyard, I needed to garden here at Hallockville.” Her plant and flower loving neighbors also share gardening tips and tools, their freshly picked crops, seeds and the do’s and don’ts. “Someone had a bug on their plants that they didn’t know and all the gardeners were weighing in to help.”
The 8-foot-high anti-deer fence that lines the perimeter was installed about eleven years ago in just one day – 7a.m. to 7 p.m. – by a hard-working team of four Amish men. A few years later, after too many rabbits were making lettuce, cucumbers and other crops vanish, volunteers at the local ROTC dug a trench around the perimeter and installed extra fencing that went down deep enough so animals couldn’t tunnel underneath.
Since then, a random adventurous raccoon will climb over the fence and have a nibble or two or in the case of just last week, one totally devoured a full crop of corn, the prized produce of a novice gardener. “Our more experienced gardeners know not to try to grow corn because it’s challenging. And in this case, we weren’t able to outsmart the animals,” chuckled garden co-manager Lois Leonard.
‘We used to have the 4 W’s every week: Weed, Whine and Wine on Wednesdays in the apple orchard, but now everyone’s so busy it doesn’t happen as often.’
Lois Leanord
In addition to not worrying about deer and rabbits, being able to attach their water hoses to an irrigation system is another benefit that attracts people to come to Hallockville’s community garden. It was donated by S & L Irrigation of Southold. One of the owners Tom Shearin said, “We did it because it was a good thing to do. We were asked to help out and we said, of course we can. You have to give back to the community.”
Herb Strobel, former executive director of Hallockville Museum Farm for a dozen years, said many who sow their seeds here don’t have room in their backyards or they live in condo communities that don’t allow gardening. “And for some there’s too much shade on their property.” He estimated that at the end of every season, this modest sized community garden – considered a little piece of paradise to many – generates many tons of food.
Most of the people who spend their time here are older. “It’s rare to have younger people because they have kids and they’re busy,” said Leonard. But everyone works together keeping the grass pathways between the plots tidy and watering each others plots when their neighbors can’t stop by to do it themselves.
Walking through the grassy paths separating the plots, several overflowing with bushy tomato plants, Strobel commented on the personality some add to their plot such as whimsical signs and even a tall white windmill on one plot. “It’s possible their spouse has said, no, you can’t put that in our backyard!”
Once a volunteer at Hallockville, Tom Harlin became part of the gardening community three years ago and was checking on his summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes and carrots. “I just love it here!”
Edie Reisenberg of Laurel said she was gardening at her house until 2019, but “I have lots of shade from my oak trees” so 7 years later, Hallockville has remained her place to grow eggplant, turnips, string beans, carrots and peppers. “I had two plots but went back to one. Guess I was FOMO! Fear of missing out!”
With four years under his gardening belt, an at-home Flanders beekeeper Kevin Wasp’s one plot has sentimentality. It was lovingly tilled for years by Peter Beauregard, “B” his fellow gardeners called him, because he was known for being a “happy, sweet guy who was always experimenting” according to Wasp. “B” passed away two years ago.
Wasp’s way of gardening is to talk to his plants. “It’s my slice of heaven here in the morning. It gets me going for the day.” His plot is full of hot peppers that he plans to turn into his style of homemade sauce.
The community comradery kicks off in early April at the Opening Meeting when gardeners gather to put the numbered signs on the plots and go over the rules of the garden. “We used to have the 4 W’s every week. Weed, whine and wine on Wednesdays in the apple orchard, but now everyone’s so busy it doesn’t happen as often,” Leonard said.
The garden gets busy at the end of March when eager gardeners can’t wait to get their hands in the dirt and their soaker hoses flowing. Weeds are being uprooted, compost goes in as walking paths are cleared. That cycle continues until the end of November when garlic bulbs are put into the ground to be harvested next year.
Like many of his gardening neighbors, Guy DiCosola, a part time chef, drives from further west to get to his plot. “I’ve had pretty good success with my herbs,” as he pointed to his robust rows of oregano, basil and tarragon.
DiCosola is already planning for next summer. “I want to give garlic a try.” Last year he won 2nd place in the Community Garden’s garlic contest, based on a scoring sheet that focuses taste, appearance and aroma.
For more information, call 631-298-5292 or email adminasst@hallockville.org.
