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Breezy Acres Farm Community Garden
 We are very grateful to Mark Brouillette of Breezy Acres Farm in Montgomery for inviting Montgomery Community Gardens to establish a community garden at his farm.
Mark's family has been farming in Montgomery and Sheldon, Vermont for many generations. Several years ago Mark decided to transition from a traditional dairy farm to a diversified organic farm that would include Jersey cows, pigs, poultry, vegetables and maple syrup.
Mark has always known the value of an education and is reminded of this fact every day when he drives children to and from school in his bus. Knowing of the environmental education programs of the Hazen's Notch Association, Mark invited Rolf and Sharon Anderson to develop agricultural education programs for young people at Breezy Acres Farm.
The three met first at Hazen's Notch and later at Mark's farm to discuss the possibilities. They knew that this would be important work. "Children today need to understand where their food comes from," said Mark. "If we can get them to come to this farm, see how it's done, and maybe even learn how to grow their own food - well that would be great. I'd like to see that happen. Education is important to me and I want my farm to play a part in it."
Rolf and Sharon agreed. Their experience teaching with the Hazen's Notch Association and the training they received from Shelburne Farms and NOFA-VT made them certain that their vision of bringing agricultural education to Montgomery would be important work.
The Community Garden at Breezy Acres Farm is very significant because it will be part of a year-round program designed to create connections between the farmer and his farm, residents of the town, and school children.
This community garden and the other educational activities at Breezy Acres will serve as the centerpiece of Montgomery Community Gardens. The impact of this garden will be enhanced by its very visible location on the road from Montgomery to Richford. We look forward to many productive seasons of gardening and agricultural education at Breezy Acres in the years ahead.
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Support
 Montgomery Community Gardens welcomes donations from residents and businesses who wish to support gardening and food education.
Volunteer your time and energy, donate materials, or make a financial contribution.
Volunteer
We need help with garden projects to include garden design, garden structures, soil enhancements, and sign making. Whether your talents include designing a garden, improving soil, carpentry or organizing people, Montgomery Community Gardens can use your help.
Donate
To make our gardens welcoming and comfortable for people to visit, learn and work at, we need to make numerous improvements. We need to build a tool shed and a picnic table, build a fence around the garden, make signs identifying the gardens and put up a bulletin board with information for gardeners and visitors.
We hope to receive donations of materials to include compost, fertilizer, fence posts, lumber for a tool shed, a picnic table, benches, sign board and bulletin board. If you or someone you know can help us with any of these needs, please contact us.
Contribute
Financial contributions in any amount are always welcome. Although we intend to keep our budget as modest as possible and rely on donated labor and materials for most of our projects, some aspects of our work will require cash expenditures. Know that your financial contributions will be carefully used to only fulfill needs that cannot be met by volunteers and material donations.
Contributions in any amount are welcome. Make your check payable to Montgomery Community Gardens and mail it to:
Montgomery Community Gardens
Colleen Pratt, Treasurer,
P.O. Box 478
Montgomery Center, VT 05471
Thank you !
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Community Gardening Resources
If you are contemplating a community garden project for your town, there are many good resources for planning, organizing, starting and sustaining your garden.
Many established and successful community gardening programs exist throughout Vermont and in other states. Several of these provide helpful information through their websites and publications.
In Vermont a great place to start is the website of the
Friends of Burlington Gardens.
Outside of Vermont visit the
American Association
of Community Gardens.
For more information
For more information about gardening in Montgomery visit the websites of:
the
Covered Bridges
Garden Club
the
Hazen's Notch Association
Gardening Programs
Montgomery
Community Gardens
is a member
of the
Vermont
Community Garden
Network
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The Friends of Montgomery Community Gardens thank everyone who through their donations of time, energy, materials and money support community gardening and agricultural education in Montgomery.
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