Eunice Community Garden seeks to grow involvement

The Eunice Community Garden has scheduled an open hour from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays to allow the community to learn about the opportunity to garden in a community setting.
Patricia Brown, the garden’s interim coordinator, said she and Stephanie Guillory will be at the garden Tuesday to answer questions and sign up gardeners.
“I don’t think there are a lot places to gather in the community,” Brown said. “You can go to bars, you can to restaurants, you can hang out on 2nd Street or, ideally, you can come to the garden.”
The open garden Tuesday is the first step in revitalizing the garden, she said.
The garden consists of raised beds and at its peak there were 29 active beds. There are now nine, Brown said.
Brown estimates about 60 4-by-8-foot raised beds can be placed in the garden.
“Jardin des Amis” is located at 2201 W. Ash St. and is behind the state Department of Motor Vehicles office.
Brown described the garden as “... a nonprofit community whose purpose is to encourage healthy, natural, cooperative outdoor individual and communal activity in a sustainable collective garden.”
The community garden began in 2013 and was once the site of community events, she said.
“This is an option for people to grow their own parsley, rosemary or tomatoes,” she said.
The garden may appeal to people who want to grow something not available in the grocery store, she said.
“They may want to experiment. Maybe they want to grow something like heirloom tomatoes,” she said. “You can’t buy those, but you can grow them.”
The garden is also about building community relationships and providing an outdoor activity.
“Some people don’t want to garden here, they would rather stay at home and do it there, but they come over here to socialize,” she said.
A $20 fee is asked to use a raised bed, she said. Beds are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The produce must be for private use.
Brown, in an e-mail, described the “big picture” for the garden as:
— To help Eunice and area community learn about growing healthy food and eating more veggies — and maybe a little less white rice and cracklins!
— To bring the community together by gardening and to promote a healthy and active lifestyle.
— To be a joint enterprise of people with garden expertise, would-be gardeners, and the earth, for the advancement of health, appreciation for our natural physical existence, and community.
— It’s a community as much as a garden.