Shelton Community Garden?

Shelton is on track for building a new Community Garden this spring, similar to Milford's garden at Eisenhower Park, where people can lease small garden plots for a nominal fee. Most likely spot: Klapik Farm Open Space just south of Long Hill School. Last Tuesday's crazy warm weather was the perfect time to walk the site and check the soil. The picture below is looking south towards the end of the Longview Road cul-de-sac. The field is at the crest of a hill, in this case a glacial feature called a drumlin.

State maps classify the soil here as "prime farmland", but drumlins often have nasty hardpan a few inches below the surface, so I tried digging a hole. One would expect to hit ice and rock this time of year. Instead, the shovel slipped through the soil like butter, going down a full 12". And it had rained an inch or two the day before, yet the soil was not muddy. Very nice!

Here's a pan of the field (stitched together with Canon Photostitch). You'll need to click on this to zoom in. You can see that the field is surrounded on all sides by trees (the north side is actually an old pentway with another field beyond it).

Here's an aerial with the open space map overlay (the green is city property). The lower left field is where the garden is may be going, off the end of Longview Road. Long Hill School is in the upper right corner of the photo.

Pre-registrations are being accepted by the Community Garden Committee and will be used to demonstrate need to the Board of Aldermen. There is no obligation or fee for preregistration, but you will be notified when plots are available and receive priority. Plots will be around 20x20 feet, and the fee will be about $20.

The new Community Garden Committee meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am in City Hall room 104. They will be working out all the details, then forward their recommendations to the Board of Aldermen for approval and funding. Agendas and minutes can be viewed here.