Participants in the community teaching garden program at Burlington's Ethan Allen Homestead have not only reaped vegetables this summer; they have also built a stone table. They built it by hand, one stone at a time, without mortar or cement – in the style of old farm fences. The circular table exemplifies teacher Jim Flint's ideas about gardening: "It's not only about flowers and vegetables; it's about people working together, sharing, and teaching one another. It's about building a community."

Designed and created with stones donated by Charley MacMartin of Queen City Soil and Stone, the table was started on the evening of the summer solstice and finished on August 23. The gardeners "held each other up" and persevered, says Flint, through muggy nights, mosquitoes, and end-of-day weariness. The table will be used on September 9 at the Friends of Burlington Gardens' Corn Roast Dinner and Veggie Ball, which will also include live music by Mary's Lane and  Jenni Johnson and Friends.

Flint, executive director of Friends of Burlington Gardens, is at the center of a gardening web, which supports and encourages community and neighborhood gardens in Burlington, garden sites at area schools, senior centers, and housing complexes, garden day camps, plant sales, and tool loaning.

Most recently, FBG is facilitating the Vermont Community Garden Network to encourage community gardens throughout the state. In 2007, FBG awarded 60 mini grants for garden projects throughout Vermont, including raised bed timbers, signs, topsoil, compost, fencing, water systems, tool sheds, bulletin boards, and garden carts. One of the mini grants helped the Heineberg Senior Center in Burlington create a raised bed in their sunny front yard in which senior volunteers raise tomatoes, onions, basil, and parsley.

At the community teaching garden, Flint emphasizes the development of a "sustainable permaculture system, with the least amount of fossil fuel inputs." The gardeners turn the soil over by hand and use a non-power mower. They learn how to grow many vegetables in a small space, sharing their skills and helping each other. They cultivate their own garden plots and help out tending the common plots where the beans and the cantaloupes grow. Flint has coordinated the teaching garden classes for five years now. He is proud of the fact that many graduates go on to help establish other community gardens and come back to serve as mentors in his class.

Diane Noyes, a participant in the community teaching garden who describes herself as "semi-retired," reports an "amazing" harvest out of her four feet by twenty-five feet plot. – lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, carrots, and new for her – Swiss chard and beets. She is looking forward to harvesting sweet potatoes at the end of the month. She has used her teaching garden skills to establish and care for the plants at the Heineberg Senior Center. And she uses the herbs and tomatoes as garnishes for senior breakfasts at the center.

Linda Deliduka, a retired teacher, has been involved with community gardens since the idea first surfaced in Burlington in 1972.  As a teacher, with the help of FBG, she developed a school garden and gardening camp at Burlington's Champlain School. After she retired, she helped create two raised garden beds at the Sara Holbrook Community Center, and for three years she coordinated a summer garden camp there, reinforcing English and math skills and taking the children on garden related trips. "Gardening opened up a whole new world for these kids," she says. This year, Deliduka helped to put in the flower and vegetable beds at the Heineberg Senior Center.

"If I had known how much fun retirement is, Deliduka says, "I would have done it first." 

Deliduka argues that beautifying the city requires more than planting flowers. You need people to care for the plantings. She points out that in the FBG supported plantings – at Sara Holbrook, Heineberg, Archibald Street – there has been no vandalism, no tagging. People know that their own neighbors and children have done the planting. People walking past the Heineberg Center are welcome to pick a few cherry tomatoes. "That's what they are there for," says Deliduka. "And no one yet has abused the privilege."

"The more you do, the more the spirit of gardening spreads," Deliduka says, "another idea that Jim Flint cultivates." She notes that after the Sara Holbrook garden took off, nearby Burlington College, the credit union, and the gas station have all sprouted flowers. 

Corn Roast Dinner and Veggie Ball, a gala outdoor benefit for Friends of Burlington Gardens and the Vermont Community Garden Network.

Sunday, September 9, 5 – 9 pm, at the Ethan Allen Homestead. Tickets: $20 - $50, you decide!

Information and reservations: Friends of Burlington Gardens, 861-4769; www.burlingtongardens.org.

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.