Westbury Community Garden owes many thanks to Eagle Scout candidate, Case B., who chose WCG’s “Gardening Within Reach” program for his Eagle project.
“Gardening Within Reach” is an ongoing effort to build more two-level sitting/standing garden beds in the E-row for garden members who have knee, hip, or shoulder problems that make gardening in an 8″ high plot difficult. The conversion of E-row beds will take time and will happen as E beds become available. Current E gardeners will not be asked to vacate their gardens.
Case and his crew of fellow scouts, leaders, friends, and family worked hard on dismantling the single row of cinder blocks in bed E7 and E8 and re-building those beds into two-tiered gardens. The lower section is 20″ high, perfect for sitting on the wall while gardening. The tall section is 34″ high – somewhere between table height and counter height – a nice height for standing to plant and weed, while still being able to reach the center of the bed. Each bed had 5 yards of soil added by wheelbarrows and buckets.
Not only did Case, plan and execute the build, he raised funds to cover materials for the project as well. In planning the project, Case agreed to raise money to split the cost of the blocks, rebar, and soil with WCG. He took his fundraising efforts to the next level when he presented his project plans to Johnny Carrabba of Carrabba’s Original Family of Restaurants, and obtained a check for the entire $1200 cost. Westbury Community Garden is grateful to Johnny Carrabba for the generous donation and to Case for giving a convincing project presentation in obtaining the donation.
This group of scouts and adults worked hard in the heat, making steady progress toward the ambitious goal of completing two bi-level garden plots in one day. Work stopped when we ran short of blocks, but the project will be finished in a few weeks when the remaining materials are ready and the crew can come back. We expect to finish off the project in two hours.
