By Shawn Skager-The Courier Herald
It’s almost harvest time at the Sumner Community Garden.
Already the first crop - summer fare such as zucchini and beans - are out of the ground and making their way into pantries around the community, including the ones at the Sumner Food Bank.
Judging by the look of the rest of the garden, there is more to follow. Cabbage as big as a horse’s head nestle underneath corn stalks seven-feet tall. Tomatoes await the final sun ripening and already several plantings of pumpkins are beginning to turn orange in anticipation of fall.
Sumner Councilman Randy Hynek is all smiles as he looks around the 150 10-feet by 10-feet plots that make up the garden.
“I’ve never enjoyed anything as much as this,” he said.
For the past two years Hynek has thrown his weight - and his sweat - behind the idea of a community garden. He scouted the land, worked the soil preparing it for planting and laid out the irrigation with the help of other community members like Don Proctor, who helped lay out 4,000 feet of plastic pipe to irrigate the garden’s 10 80-foot rows of beans.
“We drilled pipe for three days,” said Proctor, who puts in upwards of 40 hours a week helping out at the garden. “A hole every foot.”
“Without the support system and the community this wouldn’t have happened,” Hynek said.
Even with this year’s crops still in mid-harvest, Hynek is looking forward to next season.
“We want to go organic next year,” he said. “We want to build a greenhouse also, to save on seedlings.”
In addition, Hynek said he hopes to upgrade the irrigation system at the garden, which is run off a tiny three-quarter inch line that runs out of a church in front of the garden.
“We want to go from using a three-quarter inch line to a 2-inch main,” Hynek said.
Hynek’s wish should become a reality. This week the garden was awarded a $5,300 grant from the Pierce County Conservation District, which Hynek said he’ll use to beef up the irrigation.
This year the garden drew 80 gardeners. They came from Sumner, Bonney Lake and Lake Tapps.
Next year, Hynek is shooting for more. Many more.
“I hope to double or triple the number of gardeners,” Hynek admits.
Already the city is accepting reservations for the garden’s waiting list.
“They need to call 253-863-8300 to get put on the community call list,” Hynek says. “Or visit the Web site (at www.ci.sumner.wa.us). I need to know how much land to prepare. I also need fertilizer. It takes 20 tons of manure per acre.”
According to Hynek the garden is open to everybody, not just Sumner residents. Everybody pays the same amount - $10 per plot.
In addition to the site off of Valley Avenue, the community garden also extends to a 2 1/2 acre “community farm” near the Sumner Cemetery.
“We’ve got 2 1/2 acres of potatoes, corn, squash and beans coming in out there,” Hynek says. “Everybody who helps out there gets to share that.”
In addition the garden and farm make frequent donations to local food banks. So much that Hynek said he has had to buy three 10-gallon rubbermaid containers just to hold the produce that is donated.
“We’ve hauled off a lot of stuff to the food bank,” Hynek said.
For all the altruistic benefits that come from the garden, the key element remains fun, according to Proctor.
“The thing we’ve planted the most of is fun,” he smiled. “And it’s coming up big.”
Reach Shawn Skager at sskager@courierherald.com or 360-802-8208.
