Shrewsbury Gardening Grows Nearer

Shrewsbury's community gardeners with the goal of getting their garden up and running this season. With unified support, a solid plan and a promise of compromise when it came to the proposed location, the only hurdle the gardeners faced was time.

It may be a bit late, but it looks like a garden will grow in Shrewsbury.

At Monday's borough meeting, Councilman Tom Menapace said Shrewsbury is in the process of approving the gardeners' drafted rules and regulations. With the approval of a contract with a fencing company and plans on how to best supply the garden with water being formulated Menapace said he expects planting to begin by the end of the June. 

Tomatoes anyone?

"Granted, we're probably going to be at the ragged edge of the planting season," Menapace said. "But they (the community gardeners) accept that and they're ready to move forward."

Since the gardeners brought their plan before council there's been an effort on both the part of the gardeners and the board to get the process underway. The effort in Shrewsbury is in contrast to the community garden efforts in Red Bank, which are still in flux more than a year after the Red Bank Community Garden Committee presented its plan to establish a garden at the base of the Red Bank Public Library along the Navesink River. Red Bank council nixed that plan, though recently the gardeners have, begrudgingly, accepted the idea of moving the garden to another location.

In Shrewsbury, the council has allocated approximately $21,000 in open space funding to help move the garden along. The board approved a $12,750 contract with Fortress Fence, a Wall Township-based fencing company that will surround the garden adjacent to the municipal complex. The remaining sum will help defray other associated gardening costs.