LA GRANDE — After being closed for two years, the La Grande Community Garden at Eastern Oregon University bloomed back to life last season.

The community garden was mostly unused throughout the pandemic, according to Board Chair Ellen Hartstirn. The garden was able to reopen in 2023 and there was a lot of work to be done, but the gardeners and community rallied.

“The community response was great,” she said.

Getting restarted

Hartstirn said that after coming out of the pandemic the community garden needed to find a new nonprofit organization to act as its fiscal agent. A fiscal agent handles the finances for an organization, such as accepting donations or applying for grant funding.

Northeast Oregon Network — commonly known as NEON — was in the process of rolling out a new fiscal agent program, according to Umbrella Program Manager Stephanie VanLeuven. The Community Umbrella Program provides fiscal and administrative support to community projects.

In addition to meeting monthly with the organization and providing a framework, NEON handles things like the operational fees, liability insurance and legal advice.

While NEON is there to provide support, VanLeuven said she really wants to see the community organizers take charge.

“I really want to applaud the garden,”she said.

Hartstirn said it took longer than anticipated to get everything worked out. Not only did the board of the community garden need to get everything worked out with NEON, but NEON also needed to finalize the contract with Eastern Oregon University for use of the space.

“Waiting was hard,” Hartstirn said.

The garden could not operate without Eastern, according to Hartstirn. The university owns the land that is used for the community garden, which is located on 13th Street and stretches the length of I and H avenues. EOU donates the land and water for use by the garden.

Once all the t’s were crossed and i’s were dotted on the contracts it was time to tackle the next challenge — getting the garden back into shape.

While community members were required to take two years off from gardening, Mother Nature certainly did not take a break.

“The natural contender was weeds,” Hartstirn said. “Weeds and grass.”

There was a lot of work that needed to be done before the community garden could reopen. Hartstirn said she was worried about whether people would be willing to put in the work and the time.

When signing up to use the community space, gardeners agree to volunteer at least five hours of their time towards the maintenance of the garden. There are a wide range of volunteer opportunities, Hartstirn said, such as mowing, picking up trash, weeding along the fence line, completing projects around the garden or even watering plots for people who are away.

In 2023, volunteers clocked more than 367 hours of work. Hartstirn added that this is only the number of hours that were recorded, so the total number of volunteer hours is likely even higher.

Volunteer time included 70 hours across four different work parties with both gardeners and non-gardeners to get the space back into workable shape prior to the season starting.

“People stepped forward,” Hartstirn said.

VanLeuven believes this is a testament to Hartstirn’s great leadership.

First year back

The community garden has around 50 plots available for use. This year 21 gardeners utilized a total of 26 plots. Hartstirn said that prior to the two year closure gardeners typically utilized anywhere between two-thirds to three-fourths of the plots. She added that during her seven years being involved with the community garden there has only ever been one season where all of the plots were being used.

Given the excess of plots this last season, some gardeners signed up for two plots and other gardeners started growing food for donation in unused plots.

Hartstirn said that following the La Grande Middle School plant sale unsold plants were donated to the community garden. Gardeners took their pick from the plants, but even still there were some left over.

To save these plants from going to waste, gardeners planted them in unused plots for donation. Master Gardeners also grew produce for donation.

Last season the garden donated around 100 pounds of produce to the community — with 50 pounds going to the Union County Senior Center and another 50 pounds going to the Veterans Village Gleaning Project.

Looking forward

Hartstirn wants the community garden to be accessible to all members of the community.

Plots are $30, but reduced pricing options are available for both Eastern students and any individuals receiving public assistance.

One of the current goals of the community garden board is to make the space more accessible for people with mobility issues. The paths throughout the garden can be difficult to navigate for people with walkers or wheelchairs. The existing water sources can be difficult to access and the garden beds are also low to the ground.

Hartstirn hinted that there may be an upcoming collaboration with an Eagle Scout to help address one of these issues.

The garden board chair also wants to continue strengthening the relationship of the garden with the community and Eastern Oregon University.

“The more participation from the broader community, the better,” Hartstirn said.

Some international students at Eastern have expressed interest in having a space to grow vegetables that are native to their home countries. Hartstirn said that many of these veggies would require a greenhouse in order to grow and thrive in the Eastern Oregon climate.

A greenhouse could be a great addition to the garden and all these projects lend themselves to the lasting longevity of the community garden.

Signs up start in January and the community garden can begin assigning plots for 2024 as soon as the snow melts.

To get involved or for more information email lagrandecommunitygarden@gmail.com or go to the group’s social media page at www.facebook.com/groups/lgcommunitygarden