Recent rains have left their mark on Gilroy, overflowing local waterways and making a tourist attraction out of the flooding on Miller Avenue at Christmas Hill Park.
For the Gilroy Demonstration Garden on Eigleberry between Sixth and Seventh streets, the recent deluge has been a mixed blessing. More rain means spending less on expensive water bills, but it also leaves behind a lot of weeds.
“Unfortunately with all the rains, come the weeds,” said Ronald Welten, board vice president of the Demonstration Garden, surveying the flourishing green of the three-quarter acre site.
The garden holds regular work days, where volunteers can put in a few hours pruning and weeding and at the end take home what they can harvest.
Jacquelyn Morris, a Gilroy resident who has volunteered at the garden since she moved to the city over two years ago, was recently spotted pulling up a massive weed from one of the site’s many raised beds.
“I started gardening when I stopped working as a nurse. Eating what you grow yourself is so rewarding and the produce so fresh,” said Morris. She said she tries to get out to the downtown garden when she can. That day, she had stopped by after already spending her morning volunteering at the extensive grounds of Gilroy Gardens doing similar work.
“We would love to get more people into the garden,” said Kit Grizzle, the garden coordinator. “If each person volunteered just four hours a month, it would make a huge impact.”
Spring hours at the garden have begun and once the rain lets up, every second Saturday of the month is a workday followed by a potluck.
“People bring a dish to share and there is usually enough growing in the garden to make a huge salad,” said Grizzle.
The Gilroy Demonstration Garden was started in 2010 as an initiative of Leadership Gilroy after the development of the planned arts center complex was shelved.
Since then the garden’s fate and resident flock of chickens have been managed by a group of dedicated volunteers and the board of directors.
Operations and outreach are currently managed by Grizzle, the only paid staff member; she receives a stipend for part-time work.
Welten said he would like to see more support from the city of Gilroy so the garden could go beyond survival mode and really flourish.
“We haven’t had lots of support from the city,” said Welten. “We need marketing help; a lot of people in Gilroy do not know about it.”
Drip tape irrigation was installed in the garden to help conserve water, but the group would like to pay agricultural water rates. Welten said the group has petitioned the City Council for help in getting their water rates reviewed but no action has been taken.
Long-term planning for the garden is a bit of a challenge as well, since the plot is a holdover from the delayed arts center complex project.
“We don’t know if we are going to be here five years from now,” said Welten. “I’d like to build a permanent greenhouse.”
A nonprofit, the garden exists on donations and holds a couple major fundraisers each year. Next month is the garden’s annual plant sale and in the fall, a farm-to-table dinner held at the garden pulls in about 100 folks.
The garden also usually books a table at the Gilroy farmer’s market starting each spring, but that is also up in the air, as the fate of the market is currently being discussed by the garden board and the California Farmers’ Market Association (CFMA), which organized the market the previous two years.
A call to the association a few weeks ago about this year’s farmer’s market directed the Dispatch to contact the demonstration garden for an answer on whether or not it was going to happen.
“We are currently in discussions with the association but don’t have a clear answer yet,” said Welten.
For a fee Welten calls “reasonable” the CFMA managed the weekly farmers market in Gilroy, which for the last two years was held on Saturday at the main library complex on Rosanna and Sixth streets.
Welten, who has also sold his own produce at the farmer’s market—he has a 15-acre certified organic ranch on Watsonville Road—said he hopes they come to a decision soon.
“There’s a problem with attendance,” he said. “It usually starts out great; May through July, but as soon as school starts, attendance goes down. It’s a chicken-and-egg story, the vendors won’t come if the people aren’t there.”
Welten said sometimes there would be more vendors than customers.
A solution could be to hold the farmer’s market at the downtown garden, but Welten said that has not been determined as conversations with the association continue.
To keep up with the latest news from the garden, follow them at https://www.facebook.com/GilroyDemonstrationGarden/.
