Longville Gets a New Community Garden

Though it’s been quite a dry summer this year, the city of Longville has kept up their spirits by continuing to plant fresh produce and flowers in their newly renovated community garden.

It was just this last year when a group of three local people decided to completely renovated an overgrown lot and open it to the public as the Longville Area Community Garden this past June. Carol Johnson and her crew have raised over $35,000 for this project through grants and raised funds. All of the items that can be found at the garden are completely donated and repurposed. Though they are still within the expansion phase, they were taken by surprise at how many members wanted to join.

The garden currently holds approximately 22 raised beds, 12 round plots, and has a large plot used for the Longville Local Food Shelf. Gardeners have full access to items in the garden shed, which was painted by a local artist by the name of Tom Kutschied. Along with educational signs hung along the perimeter of the garden from The University of Minnesota’s Master Gardener Program. Besides this garden’s amenities, its watering system is extensive.

In the event that it doesn’t rain, there is a backup well water make up with a level controller located inside the water tanks. When the water is drawn out to the garden, the well water kicks in, and it fills up the tank up to 30%. From the rain water collection tanks, it is supplied to garden via pumps through a 2-inch supply line which runs from about 100 feet from the maintenance building over to the arrogation manifold in the garden.

The garden beds are automatically watered for 10 minutes each day: five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the afternoon. Designer for the Longville Area Community Garden Dave Owen says that the recommendation is to not use overhead spraying due to most of the water lost through evaporation. To avoid this issue, they use what is called drip arrogation, which is placed right at the root.

The community garden is open daily from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. If anyone is interested in a plot for next year, they can find the application on the Longville Area Community Garden’s Facebook page.