Community gardens in McHenry County emphasize community: Where plots are available this spring

Tracy Gerber has always enjoyed gardening of the vegetable variety, but living in an apartment limited what she could grow.

She posted on the Nextdoor app four years ago, looking for a community garden near McHenry with plots available. That led to her connecting with Judy Gottlieb, and now the two are co-leaders of the McHenry Township community gardens, offering 20 raised beds in which township residents can plant their vegetable gardens.

Community gardens are great for people who live in apartments or townhouses, who have yards that get too much shade or who want to share their produce with others, said Brenda Dahlfors, the master gardener and master naturalist program coordinator for the University of Illinois Extension office in McHenry County.

“Community gardening – the most important word there is community,” Dahlfors said. “It is chance to socialize, to learn from each other, a chance to get outside for people who live in apartments, to supplement their food budget by being members of community gardens.

“Do it because, budget-wise, cutting into the food budget by growing your own is amazing.”

The township’s beds are not the only community garden in McHenry. Over the winter, the city of McHenry installed eight raised bed gardens at the historic Petersen Farm at 4112 McCullom Lake Road, parks and recreation Director Bill Hobson said.

“We heard this request several times over the past three or four years” to have a community garden spot in the city, Hobson said.

McHenry’s new beds are 4 feet by 8 feet and 3½ feet tall, and each one has a water line running to it.

“We will see how it goes on our first run,” Hobson said. “We have the ability to expand, and I like that we are partnering with Petersen Farm for bringing back the farming aspect there.”

The beds are taller than average to be a little more knee- and back-friendly for gardeners, and a little less friendly to pests.

“This keeps them off the ground to protect them from furry friends” who may otherwise snack on young plantings, Hobson said.

He has not started advertising the plots’ availability yet and is still working out the details of how they can be reserved. Once that information is ready, it will be available on the city website and the McHenry Parks and Recreation Department’s Facebook page.

McHenry’s dirt came from the Fox River Waterway Agency, dredged from the river and screened.

“We use that rich black dirt in other spots as well,” Hobson said.

The township’s garden beds were built in 2021 with the help of a grant Gottlieb secured from Home Depot, Gerber said.

“They gave us a grant for the soil, the beds, everything you see out there,” including a gardening shed adjacent to the plots at 3515 N. Richmond Road in McHenry, Gerber said.

The beds were built next to the FISH of McHenry Food Pantry in the old bocce ball courts that were not being used. The garden has a design called hügelkultur – putting down branches, leaves and wood chips under the soil-and-mushroom dirt mix to create both better drainage and rich soil, Gerber said. Every year after that, a new bag of garden soil-and-mushroom compost goes on top of the 20 planting beds.

There are a total of 20 beds at the township site, but only 10 of them are being used now. Gerber encourages those who would like one to reach out via the township’s website. Unlike others in the county, these beds do not have a rental fee, but people must fill out an application and promise to take care of their beds and plants, too.

“We are required to water our plots and do the weeding” and volunteer to help out with four-hour shifts on two of the scheduled workdays, Gerber said.

Sharing – of garden tools and produce, too – does happen, she said, but everyone is expected to bring their own plants, whether they started seeds at home or buy seedlings from a nursery.

Gerber buys her plants at a nursery.

“I’ve tried to start my own seeds at home. It was an epic fail,” she said.

There is a joke about the price of growing your own tomatoes.

“There is an old book, ‘The $64 Tomato,’ " Dahlfors said.

But growing your own vegetables does not have to be expensive.

“If you know how to save seeds, you only have to buy that seed packet once.”

She encourages those taking advantage of the community gardens to share seeds with their neighbors.

“A 99-cent cucumber-seed packet with 12 seeds ... even a family of four does not need 12 cucumber vines unless you are pickling,” Dahlfors said.

There are plants that will come back every year, or that may reseed themselves. The McHenry Township garden discourages those, Gerber said, because someone else may have to clean it out if the plot’s renter doesn’t return.

For those who are a little uncertain about trying to garden, learning from others is one of the joys of community gardening, Dahlfors said.

“Community gardens have a heavy emphasis on community,” she said.

They also can call the Extension office at 815-338-3737 or visit the Woodstock office at 1102 McConnell Road to ask the master gardeners questions, Dahlfors said. Messages also can be sent through the website extension.illinois.edu/lm/contact.

Towns and park districts with community gardens. Please see the organization’s website for availability and other guidelines.

• Cary Park District: carypark.com/rccms/community-gardens
• Crystal Lake Park District: crystallakeparks.org/community-garden-plot
• Fox Lake: foxlake.org/294/Community-Garden
• Island Lake: villageofislandlake.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Victory-Garden-Guidelines-2023.pdf
• Lake in the Hills: lith.org/government/departments/community-services/parks-and-recreation/parks-facilities/garden-plots
• McHenry: cityofmchenry.org
• McHenry Township: mchenrytownship.com/wp-content/uploads/Community-garden-2023-Flyer.pdf
• Volo: villageofvolo.com/2194/Community-Garden
• Woodstock: woodstockil.gov/367/Woodstock-Community-GREENS