North Chatham Free Library Holds First-Ever Vegetable Garden Tour

At Garden 1, the homeowner is experimenting with cover crops and soil additives. At Garden 2, a pair of families works 16 raised beds and seven ground-level edged beds. Garden 3 belongs to a first-year gardener who planted three sisters heritage seeds to great success. And Garden 4 has installed a three-foot-high double electric fence to control deer. What they have in common: they’re all on the Vegetable Garden Tour in Chatham, a fundraiser for the North Chatham Free Library on Saturday, Aug. 21.

“I like to say it’s the first vegetable garden tour ever, at least in the area,” said Randi Walker, a library board trustee who proposed the idea. “We were trying to come up with different ways to fundraise. I know a lot of people are spending so much time getting back to nature since COVID hit and would be interested in seeing successful garden strategies.”

Unlike flower garden tours, in which the landscapes are often managed by outside professionals, these gardens are maintained by the homeowner. Walker figured people would be curious to see what the average Joe’s garden vegetable would be like. But these four aren’t exactly average, she corrected herself.

“These are people who have been teaching themselves about cover crops, soil additives, seed starting, and all the other factors that go into gardening. They’ve created high-yield gardens,” Walker said. Represented are four different approaches to gardening, although all are organic, and all of the gardeners are especially concerned with the health of their soil. Some till or use cover crops. There are raised beds and in-ground beds; some gardeners employ companion gardening, planting flowers as pest deterrents or to attract pollinators.

Once the idea of the tour got the go-ahead, Walker cold-called the homeowners, who, she said, were honored to be part of it. The gardeners have provided a written description of their plots, revealing their practices for compost, soil amendments, seeds and seedlings, and flowers, along with a “fun fact.” These statements will be included on the tour brochure, along with the addresses, a map to the properties, and parking directions.

Walker, a research scientist for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (she studies pollution), is an experienced gardener herself. She’s been working with the four selected for the tour for about two months, and has been amazed at their creativity, ingenuity, and individuality.

Take, for instance, the process of growing tomatoes.

“Everyone has a different strategy for staking their tomatoes,” she pointed out. “It’s so interesting to see how the same vegetable is trellised or secured somehow.”

Another grows callaloo, a leafy green popular in the Caribbean, but not usually grown here.

If you didn’t know anything about vegetable gardening, a peek at the brochure will give you some valuable starter information. The statements from the gardeners make it clear that deer are an issue (different kinds of fences are used); that there are plenty of options for composting besides manure; that it is helpful to have a chicken yard on the premises; and that The Berry Farm in Chatham benefits from all this activity.

“All these gardeners are my neighbors,” said Walker. “It’s nice to be able to showcase their hard work and their love of gardening.”

The Vegetable Garden Tour is a rain-or-shine event. Tickets are $25 if you reserve by Aug. 20; $30 day of tour. You can reserve at the library, or by calling (518) 766-3211. Check in on Aug. 21 is from 9 to 11 a.m. at the library. Gardens are open for touring from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.