All growing season long, the community garden at Island Grown Initiative (IGI) bustles with activity. Members arrive with cheerful hellos and greet each other by name. They inquire about bean beetle sightings, admire giant pumpkins, and take turns with the hoses. They join forces to dig asparagus beds and harvest garlic. They trade composting methods and rejoice in the first shoots of spring. They each have their own space, their own projects, their own plans, but it’s obvious this garden is more than the sum of its plots.
When IGI took ownership of the former forty-acre Thimble Farm property in Vineyard Haven in 2012, one of the nonprofit’s first tasks was to establish a community garden. Emily Armstrong, education director for IGI, garden coordinator, and founding member of the program, prepared a handful of plots on a half-acre slice of land on the campus. It opened in the spring of 2013 with five families, one wheelbarrow, a series of hoses connected end to end to reach the closest spigot, and a sturdy, deer-proof fence.
Though lacking in materials that first year, the small crew was brimming with excitement. Members joined for a myriad of reasons, many of which included having inadequate soil, sunlight, space, or even having opportunistic deer at their homes that made a garden unrealistic. But at IGI, the basics of growing were provided to them, as well as Armstrong’s wealth of knowledge and passion for regenerative agriculture.
Every year, interest grew, and Armstrong responded by carving out additional plots and sourcing more tools and seeds to share. She developed a handbook that detailed guidelines for gardening in the shared space, such as operating hours, fee structures, and methods for controlling invasive weeds before they take over a neighbor’s beds.
She sent out emails with updates about pests and diseases to watch out for, and seasonal reminders about fall clean up and preparing beds for winter. She supported growers in composting their trimmings and provided wood chips for their garden paths.
Then, in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic made many people hesitant to shop in grocery stores, Islanders flocked to the IGI community garden. For the first time, a wait list was created as Armstrong cleared new plots for aspiring gardeners who yearned for fresh produce, open space, and community.
That desire for connection hasn’t slowed down, and the uptick in participation has led to a number of improvements in the garden, such as a new irrigation system with plenty of hoses to go around and a post-and-beam shed to organize dozens of tools. Armstrong admits the present-day garden has come a long way since its humble beginnings thirteen years ago, but she always knew it would grow into something special.
“Gardening requires faith,” she said. A gardener must believe that the rain will come, the sun will shine, and tiny seeds will grow into robust plants whose leaves reach ever upward. That faith, she said, is much easier to find in a community garden, where there is always someone there to help stake tomato vines, or share their zucchini bounty, or chat with to help ease the tedium of weeding.
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Today, the garden consists of fifty 200-square-foot plots that are managed by more than twenty-five families and organizations, with more on the wait list. Though the space itself can’t get any bigger without compromising valuable space for food production and education on the larger IGI campus, the camaraderie felt around the garden continues to overflow.
For lifelong gardener Mary Seveland, the part she values most about being a member is visiting with her neighbors. “I’m nosy,” she said with a smile. “I like to see what everyone’s doing.’’
Seveland joined in 2022 and shares five plots with her daughter Heather Tilton and granddaughter Astrid Tilton. After years of only having room at home for a tiny kitchen garden, Seveland now enjoys the freedom that comes with this much space. It allows her to experiment with planting methods as well as new crops. She and Heather have been inspired to add sweet potatoes and cabbage to their repertoire, and they started an asparagus patch with crowns from a fellow gardener.
Astrid, the gleaning manager for IGI, planted her plot as a perennial herb and flower garden designed to be low maintenance during the high season. It also attracts pollinators, which benefits the whole community garden. In the fall, when things slow down, she will harvest oregano, sage, and mint. Astrid said she has never bought herbs in a grocery store – she uses what she can while they’re fresh and dries the rest to last the winter.
The trio of women is also focused on the money-saving and waste-reducing aspects of gardening. They extend the growing season as long as they can, planting spinach and kale in late summer and rows of garlic bulbs around Thanksgiving. Not only do their nasturtiums and marigolds ward off insects, they’re also beautiful and edible – Heather makes a spicy nasturtium pesto and Seveland makes a marigold cordial for the holidays. Seveland even makes sure the weeds she pulls don’t go to waste: she soaks them in a bucket of water for a few weeks to create “weed tea” which she uses in place of commercial fertilizer. “The plants seem to like it,” she said. “And it’s free!”
Their plot neighbors, though, are what keeps the family coming back year after year. They learn from each other, help each other, and when they save seeds for the next growing season, they always share what they can. One recipient is Amandine Hall, who has been a part of the community garden for the past five years after she outgrew the space at her home in Vineyard Haven.
A dedicated dahlia enthusiast, Hall uses multiple plots to experiment with developing new varieties of the flower. As the plants grow, she observes their stem strength, bloom quality, and the colors of the blossoms, selecting specimens with the most desirable or unusual traits to combine. Last spring, Hall’s Long Road Firecat cultivar was recognized by Triple Wren Farm’s Novice Hybridizer Program. It is set to be released on the market in the spring of 2028.
Hall is sure she wouldn’t be as successful with her dahlias without the dedicated space and support of the IGI community garden, as well as Armstrong’s diligence. As the garden coordinator, Armstrong visits daily, making sure hoses are working, weeds are under control, and broken tools get fixed or replaced. She monitors for pests and brings in beneficial predatory insects when necessary. As a busy working mother, Hall appreciates that someone besides her is taking care of things. “It’s all set up for us,” she marveled. “We get to just show up and play.”
Hall’s enthusiasm for the community garden even brought in her former tenant, Tayla DeLaive, who developed her burgeoning horticultural interests while living on Hall’s property and helping with her home garden. When DeLaive moved on to another rental, Hall encouraged her to sign up for her own spot in the IGI garden. Knowing how much work it can be to establish and maintain a garden, DeLaive recruited her friends, sisters Alexis Da Silva and Taylor Thompson, to help manage the plot with her.
Da Silva and Thompson grew up with a big garden at home and were excited to join DeLaive in her plot since the sisters rent and can’t have a garden at home. The friends were also eager to have an excuse to make time in the summer to see each other and have a project to work on together. Though they were among the youngest and least experienced gardeners when they joined in 2023, they felt immediately welcomed by the community.
Now seasoned agricultural veterans, the young women are celebrated for their eight-foot-tall hollyhocks and admired for their prolific cucumber yield. With the support of their community, they have gained the confidence to try new things – this year they grew cucamelons: a grape-sized fruit that looks like tiny watermelons and have a crisp, pickle-like flavor.
Of course, they enjoy their successes, but they have also learned to appreciate that they are always learning, regardless of the outcome. For DeLaive, gardening is about the process, not the product. “When I’m here, my hands are in the dirt and not on my phone,” she said. Tending to her rows, she loses track of time, a quick stop often turning into a whole afternoon gone by.
By any measure, the community garden is a success. The members have access to fresh, locally grown flowers and produce that they grew themselves. Together they are stewards of the ecosystem – regenerating the soil and encouraging diversity in the habitat. They may all tend their own plots, but what grows in this garden belongs to everyone.
To add your name to the wait list for a plot, email Emily Armstrong at emily@igimv.org.
This article appears in Fall-Winter Home & Garden 2026-2027.