Amid Summer Heat, Volunteers Expand Community Garden

Volunteers and gardeners from the Chatham Community Garden came to the plot at Division Avenue and Main Street to help help with the new expansion on Wednesday.

Marcy Wecker, the head of the Chatham Community Garden, said that volunteers planned to install the deer fence and new plumbing Wednesday, in spite of temperatures near 100 degrees.

"It's great that a community would want to get together like this and get it done," Wecker said.

Gardeners from the garden's inaugural season, including former Borough Mayor Dick Plambeck, and new gardeners like Tom Mankiewicz and LeAnn Tavtigian, were there to water plants and to help with the fence and the plumbing.

Installing the plumbing Wednesday, Wecker said, was a "huge thing" that would help the garden open for the season after numerous delays due to heavy rain. She said the original prediction for the garden's second season was to open by June 1.

"With all that rain, there was no way that we could dig the trench for the fence, that we could plow, that we could till and get the soil ready, and dig the holes for the fence for the post. So we had to wait and wait and wait," Wecker said.

Chatham resident Pete Coviello was at the garden in December to lay the dirt and turf with donated time and supplies from his Madison-based business, Coviello Bros. On Wednesday, Green Path Landcare owner Tom Bucuk and employee Giovanni Casale, both residents of Chatham Township, were onhand with trenching equipment for the fence and plumbing.

The Jaycees and the Kiwanis Club of the Chathams have also donated money, and Dreyer's, Whole Foods, J&M Garden Center and the Town & Country Garden Club have also donated money, time and supplies.

The business community in Chatham has "been so supportive of the garden," Wecker said.