Innisfree’s vegetable garden workstation, almost four decades old, operates year-round and uses organic, bio-intensive methods. In the early spring through late fall, the garden plants, harvests, and sells vegetables. A wide variety of vegetables are cultivated on two acres of Innisfree land, including lettuces, spinach, collard greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, corn, cabbage, and zucchini and other squash.
In the winter, the garden begins preparing for a new growing season by mixing potting soil, preparing compost, and planting seedlings in a greenhouse. Seedlings are also planted in an unheated hoophouse to provide Innisfree with early spring greens. Another winter project is collecting, splitting, and delivering firewood to Innisfree houses. Holiday projects include wreath-making workshops and cutting Christmas trees for Innisfree houses.
A relatively new garden project, begun in 2004, is a community-supported agriculture (CSA) venture known as Innisfree Community Gardens. The CSA sells not only vegetables but culinary and medicinal herbs and flowers from Innisfree’s herb and flower garden and eggs from Innisfree’s farm workstation. The CSA has approximately 50 subscribers during a growing season of about 20 weeks.
Innisfree’s residents (coworkers) and volunteer caregivers participate in the vegetable garden on many levels. They plant, weed, and mulch, and they wash, weigh, and package. They use spades, shovels, and rototillers. And they all reap the benefits of breathing fresh mountain air and basking in the warm sun!
For information about buying shares in Innisfree Community Gardens or about becoming a vegetable garden intern, email innisfreegardens@gmail.com or call 434-823-5646.
