By Sarah O'Connor and Liz Steinhauser

On Friday October 31, staff and youth of the B-READY Program at St. Augustine & St. Martin's passed by the community garden on Camden and Shawmut. They noticed some late-season peppers and tomatoes, the apple and peach tree dropping their leaves, and a hoop house that one gardener had built in order to extend the growing season into Boston's cold winter months. 

This community garden, with twenty-five plots, was built in April 2013 with a partnership of partners organized by St. Stephen's Youth Programs (SSYP). Conversations with parents in SSYP's B-READY After School Program and residents of the Lenox neighborhood showed that community safety was the number one concern. Using research that shows community gardens increase a sense of community ownership and builds the neighborly relationships that help to reduce crime, organizer Jennie Msall and a group of leaders decided to launch the project. A vacant lot was identified and multiple attempts to contact the owner failed to get a response. Leaders secured a $4500 grant from the Massachusetts Service Alliance to purchase the supplies to build the beds and tools to equip the garden. Then, they organized the people to build the garden, recruiting leaders and supporters from the congregations of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and The Church of St. Augustine & St. Martin, neighborhood residents, parents and youth from the B-READY afterschool program, students from Boston University, and teens from Alternatives for Community Empowerment. Once the garden was built, neighbors applied for plots to grow healthy food for their families. B-READY staff used a plot to teach about biology and nutrition. A once vacant eye sore, was blooming with flowers and produce. And so it continued for two growing seasons.

On Monday November 3, the same B-READY staff discovered that the community garden on Camden and Shawmut had disappeared. Over the weekend, in the midst of a nor'easter, persons unknown had removed every vestige of the garden. The composters and the water catchment system were no longer there. The raised beds were nowhere to be seen. The soil, the fruit trees, the raspberry bushes, the last of the season's brassicas, even the weeds were no more. Gone, garden, gone.

For two summers, gardeners had shared watering cans, tomato tips, and an unplanned abundance of clover. Bountiful summer harvests fed neighbors delicious and nutrient-rich vegetables. Gatherings of people in a semi-abandoned lot in Lenox were seen as a constructive force for connection and community. As Chris Cato, gardener and neighborhood leader put it, "Starting on the very first day of helping to build the garden, every passerby vocalized how great it was to see something positive taking place in the open space that had been neglected for years. The community affirmed this effort with a thumbs-up and friendly shouts of 'hallelujah' or 'thank goodness.' The garden was never vandalized or abused and the community took quick ownership of protecting it. It had become a source of community pride."

The site is now empty except for a sign that says "No Trespassing" and a large storage container with a scrawled profanity in 5-foot tall graffiti letters on the side.

This is an immense disappointment to everyone who worked so hard to establish the garden, growers who tended vegetables, neighbors who watched as flowers bloomed even into the late fall, and people who were moved by the respectfully shared public space. Gardeners and allies are gathering this week on Thursday, November 20th at 6:30 to develop a plan for rebuilding (contact sarah@ststephensbos.org for more information). Leaders will use this meeting and a winter planning process as an opportunity to build more community and grow deeper connections. In the spring, gardeners expect to rebuild elsewhere nearby; stay tuned for the mid-summer harvest party details!