More than just flowers and vegetables

It’s a place where vegetables and flowers grow, sure, but it’s much more than that. It’s where local artists leave their mark, residents relax and read a book (or a community newspaper) and people gather for events and classes.

It’s the Baldwin Community Garden.

A garden is born

In the fall of 2013, Rita Cavanagh, who heads the Baldwin Civic Association’s Beautification Committee, had the idea to create a green space in the Town of Hempstead’s municipal parking lot off Grand Avenue, just south of Seaman Avenue. Cavanagh, who said she lives a “green” life, had her idea turned down, but it wasn’t long before she set her sights on a small space less than 100 feet to the west.

Nassau County approved the construction of the Baldwin Historical Museum, which opened in 1976, on the same property. For nearly 40 years, however, there wasn’t much happening on the county-owned parcel behind the small museum, though residents occasionally walked their dogs across the grass field, which extended from Laurel Court to Seaman Avenue.

According to Cavanagh, most of the people to whom she pitched the idea of converting the field into a community garden were pessimistic. “People said Nassau County wouldn’t give land away,” she recalled. But County Legislator Laura Curran, who took office in January 2014, was in favor of the project. “This is county land,” she remembered thinking. “It’s not being used for anything, it’s right behind the historical museum, it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

Cavanagh met with a member of County Executive Ed Mangano’s staff that winter, and things began to fall into place. Over the following few months, Cavanagh reached out to local businesses to secure donations, and coordinated with local schools to get students to help out. On June 21, 2014, the Baldwin Community Garden officially opened. “It sounds corny, but it was one of the greatest days on my life,” Cavanagh said. “I just felt that I made what some people called ‘the impossible’ come true.”

Always evolving
As Cavanagh, local politicians and community leaders addressed the crowd at the opening ceremony last year, there wasn’t much growing in the garden. But its artistic focal points — a wooden sun that had been used in the Baldwin High School production of “The Wiz” earlier in the year, and a mural of what the property once looked like, painted by BHS art students, were on full display.

With help from a dedicated stable of volunteers, Cavanagh has overseen dozens of projects at the site, including the construction of garden beds and the coordination of donations from local businesses. Home Depot supplied two sheds for storing materials and two picnic tables, while Lowe’s provided two benches.

Tom Owens, a Baldwin resident for 29 years and the owner of Evergreen Landscape, helps Cavanagh with the upkeep of the property, but when Owens first heard about the idea more than a year ago, he wasn’t confident that the garden would ever become a reality. It was Cavanagh’s persistence, he said, that made it happen. “She’s a spitfire, so she really gets a lot of stuff done,” he said.

Either Cavanagh or her husband, John Cochrane, is at the garden nearly every day. (Before she took the Herald on a tour one recent morning, she had already made three prior trips.) “Rita has such passion for what she does,” said BCA President Karen Montalbano. “I’m amazed how she can get everyone to follow that passion.”

Although there have been many frustrating moments, Cavanagh said of getting the garden up and running, and it is time-consuming — she also works full-time for Cablevision and is a mother of two — it’s something she is proud of. “This takes a lot of my time, but I love it,” she said.

Doug Wiedmann, secretary of Sanitary District No. 2’s board of commissioners, has supplied pallets to build garden beds and arranged trash pickups when Cavanagh calls. “Whatever she needs,” Wiedmann said, “if we have the capabilities to do it, we’ll help in any way that we possibly can.”

For Elissa Kirchner, a garden volunteer, the site has been a great spot where she has taken her three children to enjoy nature. “Baldwin has needed this so much,” she said. “To have something like this says there are community members that are serious about this.”

Getting the word out
Since there was nothing on the property for so many years, letting residents know that the garden is now open has been an uphill battle. Over the past year, though, Cavanagh said, she has seen more people eating lunch, reading or spending time with their children in the garden, which is what it’s all about.

With more people coming to the garden, more people have checked out the museum, according to Gary Farkash, president of the Baldwin Historical Society. “We’ve definitely seen an uptick in interest because people come to us on Sundays and say, ‘I had stopped by [the garden] and played with my kids during the week, and we’ve always wanted to check what was going on inside,’” he said.

Earlier this month, Farkash added, a lifelong resident came to the museum — which is open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays — and said she never knew it existed. It wasn’t until she discovered the garden that she discovered the museum and the centuries of local history inside.

A place to gather
In its first summer, several tai chi and yoga classes were held in the garden, and Kirchner, a 12-year resident, read stories aloud for children and led arts-and-crafts activities. It was also the site of the first Long Island Chestnut Festival last fall.

This year, more events are planned, including more read-alouds by Kirchner, yoga and tai chi classes, live music and stargazing. Community groups have also asked to use the site for ceremonies, Cavanagh said. “It’s become a very unifying area,” Montalbano said.

The garden is constantly evolving,Cavanagh added — the Town of Hempstead installed a bike rack on site last week. It is her hope, and that of many others, that the garden continues to grow, and that more Baldwinites take advantage of what it has to offer.

“I see it as a place that everybody on Long Island knows about,” Cavanagh said. “Now some people in Baldwin don’t even know about it, but hopefully in a few years it will be, ‘Patchogue has the duck, Riverhead has the breweries and Baldwin has the community garden.’”

A green philosophy
    Just about everything at the garden has been recycled or repurposed. From old pallets turned into garden beds, to detergent bottles used as water cans, to car tires painted green to look like a large frog, almost all of what residents see at the garden has been used elsewhere before.

Get involved
    To make a donation (flowers, vegetables) or to volunteer at the garden, contact Rita Cavanagh at beautification@baldwincivic.org.