Lions Club to create community garden

Grafton will have a community garden next year.

The Village Board recently approved a lease with the Grafton Lions Club to create a community garden at the parcel at the Grafton Little League baseball complex on Cheyenne Avenue.

Village Administrator Jesse Thyes said he spoke to the president of the Little League organization about the concept and, “They are amenable to having a neighbor.”

The lease approved by the village allows the Lions Club to use a 7,200-square-foot area north of the parking lot on which the club will create 30 to 40 four-by-eight-foot raised beds that can be rented by village and town residents.

The area, which is fenced in, would also include a small storage shed where large and small tools would be available for gardeners to check out and a water tank.

The lease is for six years, with a relocation clause in case the Little League expands its facilities and needs to use that area.

The community garden is the brainchild of Phyllis Wiggins, president elect of the Grafton Lions Club and chairman of the Lions Wisconsin District 27 A2 hunger Taskforce. 

Wiggins said Lions Clubs around the world have created community gardens as a way to tackle its goal of eliminating hunger, and when she presented the idea to the local club, “the club embraced it.”

“I was also inspired by a neighbor who struggled for a while to put food on her table,” Wiggins said. I thought that if we had a community garden in Grafton it would be a blessing.”

It took about a year for the club to organize its plans and work through those plans with the village, she said, adding the garden won’t be up and running until next summer.

“It will take us this year to get the beds in the garden,” Wiggins said, adding the club is seeking volunteers to help with the effort. She’s approached Scout groups and 4-H, and the Ozaukee Master Gardeners have said its members will help with planting and education efforts.

“We’re very excited about that help,” Wiggins said.

The village has agreed to rough grade the site for the beds, which Wiggins said will be handicap accessible, and to fill the water storage tank at the site, but the club will be responsible to pay for the water.

The club is also working to raise funds for the project, she said, estimating the cost of creating the beds at between $3,000 and $4,000.

Wiggins said she has spoken to the Ozaukee Food Alliance in Saukville about the project, and it has agreed that if there is an excess of food grown, it will distribute it through its mobile pantry.

The Lions Club is looking to charge gardeners $25 for a plot, which is expected to cover the cost of the soil, water and the club’s fees, but Wiggins said those in need who can’t afford the fee can still get a plot to plant.

The club isn’t looking to make a profit from the garden, she added.

“Everything that comes in will go to the cost of the project,” she said.

The project is one that club members are excited about, Wiggins said.

“The club is elated,” she said. “But we want to make this a community project. We’re looking for volunteers for the board to run the garden, to help us create the garden and keep it going. This is very exciting to us.”