It would be a second space for community planting in Brownsville

By Ellen Ast
Albany Democrat-Herald

BROWNSVILLE — By March 1, when the community gardens open for a second year, J.D. Cochran hopes to have permission from the city and Central Linn School District to start a second site near the district’s administrative offices. Her plan is to convert an unused baseball field into nearly half an acre of public and private gardening space.

Cochran is the project manager for the community gardens, which were open July through October last year through an effort by the Brownsville Co-op to encourage local food production and consumption.

Within the first month, the co-op had leased most of the 10-by-13-foot garden plots at $15 each for the season. Direct sunlight was attractive to food and flower growers who didn’t have enough space or adequate planting conditions at home.

If the city council and school district board approve Cochran’s proposal during meetings this month, she will move forward with a plan to divvy up part of the area into more plots for private gardeners to lease. The rest of the land will be for public use and instruction space for groups to teach gardening and sustainable living.

“Each plot will highlight a specific sustainable practice,” Cochran explained in her proposal.

The city and school district must first review guideline revisions concerning the community gardens for this year before approving an agreement to lease the space from the school district. Those new guidelines call for a longer season from March to November and higher private plot fees ranging between $20 and $40, depending on size.

Both the present 3,300-square-foot garden by Pioneer Park and an adjacent croquet court operated by the city sit on private property.

To support the co-op, the city pays to water both areas from a drip irrigation system. If the new garden site is approved, the city will water it as well. Yet some people have chided growers who last year sold produce from the gardens at farmers market for profit or donated food to Sharing Hands.

City officials have said the cost to water each site — and the amount of food from the gardens sold at market — is minimal. One meter measures water used in both the present garden and croquet court, which averages 2,000 cubic feet per month, said City Planner Bill Sattler. That’s about twice that of an average household of four people.

Cochran added a new guideline that says the sale of produce is limited to whatever’s grown in private plots. Harvests from public demonstration and vegetable gardens will be offered to social service or other programs run by the co-op. For a list of those, visit brownsvillecoop.com.

“We’re heading for some difficult times,” said Co-op President Steve Brenner, who also serves on the city council. “Anything we can do to encourage local self-sustainability is good for the community. People are going to need to get back to basics.”

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