CROTHERSVILLE
Three Crothersville entities are coming together to offer town residents a place to grow plants and flowers, gather and socialize.
During a recent town council meeting, Councilman Chad Wilson announced plans for the town, its parks board and the school to come up with ideas for a community garden.
Debbie Hackman, who has been involved with Seymour’s community garden, recently met with Wilson and other school staff members and students to discuss possibilities in Crothersville.
The school’s Young Heroes Club, National Honor Society and FFA are interested in being involved. They are working with Hackman on paperwork needed to apply for a grant.
“This would be a way for the parks board, the town and the kids from school all working together on this,” Wilson said. “(Hackman) is really excited about it, the kids from school are excited about it, the staff members are excited about it and Linda Begley has said she could get the FFA involved.”
Wilson said a second meeting is scheduled for Jan. 17 at the school, but a time has not been set.
The first step is to figure out where to put the garden.
One option is in a town-owned lot at Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street across from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1083. Organizers also have talked about putting it on or near the school grounds.
“I’ve researched a lot of this on the internet, and there are a lot of communities doing things like this, making it a green space,” Wilson said.
Crothersville could do a community garden similar to the one in Seymour, which is on school property at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School.
That one started in 2014 with one person reserving a plot but grew the next two years to having most of the 60 available plots rented by people in the community.
Seymour’s garden, which is open from May to late October, is managed by the Seymour High School FFA chapter and Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce.
The past couple of years, they have conducted a kickoff event where people have a chance to plant their own seeds or plants or purchase some from the FFA and also receive tips from professionals and socialize with other gardeners.
Seymour charges $10 for a 10-by-20-foot plot and $20 for a 20-by-20.
Another option in Crothersville is to offer a garden area for residents and add a gazebo and some benches to make it “a really nice community spot,” Wilson said.