Community Gardens
History of Community Gardens
Started in 2009 under the guidance of master gardener Anne Dean, we run two community gardens at Billings Farm and King Farm in partnership with Billings Farm and the Vermont Land Trust. These gardens service over 30 families and organizations, and have dedicated growing space to produce vegetables for the Woodstock Community Food Shelf. Our gardens are organic and observe “no-till” or “minimal disturbance” gardening principles.
Gardeners pay a small sliding-scale fee to cover garden preparation and maintenance costs. For more information or to check plot availability, contact us at gardener@sustainablewoodstock.org.
Grow Your Own Garden Program
Since 2020 Sustainable Woodstock has been distributing beginner Grow Your Own Garden Kits free of charge to individuals and families who want to produce their own food and increase long-term food security. Each free kit includes a complete set of quality gardening tools, seeds, seedlings and a beginner’s book on organic gardening. This program is open to families who would not otherwise be able to afford to garden.
The Grow Your Own Garden project has enabled and empowered some 600 people of all ages to establish new gardens and grow their own nutritious vegetables and herbs— now and into the future—including children and adults throughout the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Bridgewater Corners, Killington, North Pomfret, Plymouth, Pomfret, Perkinsville, Reading, Rochester, Rutland, South Royalton, Stockbridge, Taftsville, West Bridgewater, White River
Junction and Woodstock.
Contact us for more information.
Community Food Security Support
Sustainable Woodstock works to address the critical need for sustenance as the root of sustainability for individuals, families and communities.
In 2010, Sustainable Woodstock helped build and maintain raised beds alongside individual mobile homes at the Riverside Mobile Home Park. After the park was badly damaged by tropical storm Irene, we returned to rebuild those gardens in time for the 2012 summer growing season. More recently, we returned in the spring of 2022 to build 8 new raised beds for Riverside Residents.
Sustainable Woodstock has also helped establish gardens behind Mellishwood affordable housing and at the Woodstock Elementary School.
