Video, Photos: Putting Up a Fence at the Chatham Community Garden

"This is going to be awesome," said Green Path Landcare owner Tom Bucuk, surveying volunteers working to dig holes around the Chatham Community Garden so a fence could be set up around the area.

And just like that, Bucuk gave voice to the feelings of many who were working at the garden site Wednesday, helping to prepare the garden for its eventual opening May 1. Today, volunteers hope to put up the fence, which will protect the vegetables and plants growing in the garden from deer and other animals.

Green Path is donating materials and labor to the project. The garden is located on PSE&G property near the intersection of Division Avenue and Main Street, and the borough is paying for some of the costs associated with the space. But organizers have relied largely on volunteers and donations to get the project off the ground.

There will be 40 half-plots in the garden, and each measures 10 by 10 feet.

Bucuk said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to donate to a worthy cause.

"It's a special community project," he said. "It brings the community together."

An example of the project's unique nature, he said, came earlier in the week, in the form of an old Coviello Brothers tractor—the Madison company is also donating materials—that plowed compost laid out over the garden earlier in the day.

The tractor has wheels that are all different-colored and wears its age well. But it gets the job done, and Bucuk laughed as he described its use.

"It's what they use on farms," he said. "You don't see them in Chatham very often."

Lots of the volunteers working on the garden have plots of their own on the site. One of them, Katey Depinto, said she hopes to use the plot to encourage her children to adopt positive eating habits.

"The plan is to get our kids eating more vegetables," she said.

Gardener Marta McDowell, who is donating herbs and other plants that will surround the garden and will add to its appearance, said she hopes to grow what she called an "iced tea" garden with those plants. Such a garden, she said, would feature mint, lemon balm and other items for tea.

They will also ideally beautify the garden.

But today, workers were mostly focusing on getting the fence ready to be put up. They hoped to be finished with that project today, and were prepared to work through the hot day in order to get it done.