Markeshia Ricks Photo
Almeta Hudson was skeptical of raised beds being constructed at the Ann Street Community Garden.
“We’re dirt farmers,” Hudson (pictured in black) said.
Shirley Stevens had no such qualms. “I love the beds,” she said. “I’ve got arthritis in my knees.”
The Ann Street gardeners, affectionately called “The Golden Girls” by some of the men in the neighborhood who wield mowers and trimmers on their behalf, are getting up in age. That makes bending and getting close to the ground a little more difficult than it used to be. That hasn’t stopped them.
“We’re all senior citizens, pretty much,” the 77-year-old Stevens said. “God worked it out, right on time.” The folks who came out to get the garden ready for spring planting also were on time.
Hudson’s late husband dubbed the women “farmers” when they started the garden back in the1980s when a house that used to be on the land was torn down by the city.They started the garden to keep the vacant lot from turning into a haven for trash and criminal activity.
With the help of some students and the New Haven Land Trust, the Golden Girls and their neighbors got two community gardens back going this week as part of an experiment in government neighborhood-level micro-budgeting.
Emily Sloss (pictured in the green shirt), garden manager for the Land Trust, said the Ann Street Garden makeover, and similar one that was happening simultaneously at the Davenport Community Garden, grew from money provided by city government’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LIC), to community management teams.
Each team received $10,000 that could be used for any thing that they thought would benefit their neighborhoods. The Hill North team opted to invest the money in fixing up their neighborhood’s community gardens.
Sloss said the raised beds will be filled to the brim with new soil, allowing those who plant in the garden to do so from a seated position if necessary. In addition to adding 10 raised beds to the garden, a shed for tools and a picnic table for social gatherings also would be added.
Several of the women, like Hudson and Stevens, migrated to New Haven from the Carolinas. Hudson’s parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina; Stevens, who is from North Carolina, had never worked in a garden until she moved to New Haven.
“It was something I had always watched my grandmother do,” Stevens said. “But I said, when I get me a house, I’m going to have a garden.”
Stevens said the women have been known to grow every manner of beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and okra. They grew eggplant last year, “but some animal ate it,” added Hudson.
She said that she remembers from the early days of the garden that a man once asked: “Girl, whatchu doin’ out there?” When she told him that they were starting a garden, he was the skeptic that day. “You ain’t gonna grow no okra out there,” he said, she recalled.
“It gave me the greatest pleasure to take him a bag of okra and tomatoes when it all came up,” Hudson said with a laugh.
More than a dozen students from Hopkins School gave up a day of exams Wednesday to help the neighbors install the raised beds that had drawn Hudson’s skepticism and Stevens’ praise.
They worked for hours clearing the overgrown grass and weeds that had overtaken the Ann Street Community Garden in the Hill North neighborhood. The students also constructed all of the raised beds, and even played a bit of tug-of-war with some stubborn tree vines. Their efforts garnered, applause from the farmers.
“Great job,” shouted Hudson.
The other farmers are Martha Henderson, Barbara Harris and Elkana Barnett.
“They’re doing a good job,” Barnett said of the work the students were putting in Wednesday. “I like it.”
Like the man who wasn’t sure that the women would ever grow okra, by the end of the day Hudson’s skepticism over the raised beds had waned after she saw the final results.
As the students who had worked so hard to transform the garden said goodbye and boarded their bus, the three farmers put their heads together to figure out a way to add at least four more raised beds to the garden.
“We’re definitely going to need more beds,” Hudson said.