Community garden takes sprouts in Lakewood Ranch

Lori Walker and Joe Sidiski walked along the outside edge of the Lakewood Ranch Dog Park and looked across a field at Greenbrook Adventure Park.

Where some might see a place for soccer balls and frisbees, they see a spot for digging. 

After nearly a year of planning, Sidiski's dream of launching a community garden will take root. 

Sidiski is a Greenbrook resident and supervisor on the Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 4 board. He believes the demand is there for the garden.

“I’d love to see more participants than we have spaces,” he said. “It’s good for the community.”

On Feb. 8, contractors installed a fence for the garden, which runs along a portion of the dog park. Lakewood Ranch Town Hall operations staff expect to add water connections and bring in soil for planting as soon as possible. Sidiski hopes the garden will open by the end of February, in time for the spring growing season.

The garden will consist of 32 four-by-eight-foot plots to start, depending on demand. Individuals can lease plots at a cost of $40 from Lakewood Ranch Town Hall, once they become available.

Organizers are finalizing details of the garden, in terms of how it will operate, but Sidiski is hopeful individuals who lease plots will step up to provide garden oversight, ensuring other gardeners keep their plots maintained and grow as organically as possible.

“One of the keys to this thing is it has to be fun for the individuals,” Sidiski said. “The CDD also maintains some responsibility for this. We will certainly be overseeing the operation and make sure it runs smoothly and doesn’t become an eyesore.”

The Lakewood Ranch Garden Club will serve in a strictly advisory role to help connect gardeners with available resources.

Walker, co-vice president of the Lakewood Ranch Garden Club and a master gardener with the University of Florida’s Manatee Extension Office Master Gardeners Program, reached out to the extension office to make the garden a project site. Doing so identifies it as a place master gardeners can complete their required 40 hours of community service by hosting educational plant clinics or taking on other horticulture-related projects. The group could even maintain a demonstration plot, if it desired.

Seed money from the CDD, about $4,000, will cover initial garden costs. But Sidiski hopes his board will provide more funding in the next budget cycle, so it can build raised garden beds and eventually add features such as a storage shed, a shade structure and plantings along the fence line, for example.

The site also has room for expansion.

Garden Club member Phyllis Weber sees even more potential. She participated in a community garden in Connecticut that had a shared garden bed area, which participating gardeners used to grow food for the needy in the community.

“They came and harvested what we grew every week, but we planted and cared for it,” she said. “It worked very well.”

Individuals interested in leasing a garden plot should contact Sidiski at  [email protected].