Wellsville’s community garden offers more than just free fresh food!
By Andrew Harris, Fassett Greenspace coordinator
Main Street Wellsville has been blessed with another year of great growing! From May until early December a wide variety of vegetables and fruits have been available for anyone to explore, harvest, and enjoy!
The weather was overly cooperative with consistent rainfall and moderate temperatures. Volunteers planted, watered, weeded, and hosted a number of community events throughout the year. Community groups utilized the space to meet, rally, and hold educational gatherings. The “Little Free Library” on site was enjoyed by many regular readers who visit to “grab a book, leave a book.” The array of outdoor musical instruments were played thousands of times by children and parents and random visitors. Many enjoyed sitting along side the William Underhill sculpted bronze water fountain, surrounded by fragrant herbs like cilantro, basil, lemongrass, sage, and about a dozen other varieties.
Once the location of the bustling Fassett Hotel, the space now provides a unique destination and respite for many. But the main attraction this year was the food!
This growing season was the most productive since the garden emerged five years ago. Designed by community activist, artist, and grower Cassandra Bull, the labryinth style raised beds produced some serious crops. Many of the fruits installed by Bull have finally matured and offered lots of variety. First the black raspberries arrived and were followed by blackberries, white currants, and grapes. Fruit lovers enjoyed an almost constant availability and the opportunity to pick and eat.
If you enjoyed the fresh tomatoes this year then you noticed the plants were overloaded with roma, sungolds, cherries, and a few random hierloom tomatoes. Hundreds of quarts were available for those who enjoyed the harvest. Also very abundent this season were peas, both snap and snow. Summer squash and zucchini were plentiful, cabbages were popular, cucumbers by the hundred, and kale was still being harvested the week before Christmas!
For those who love flavor, the herb garden surrounding the water fountain was another highlight of the season. Cilantro and parsleys were abundant, all the extra basil we planted was a big hit, and unique herbs like bronze fennel, sorrel, and silver-laced thyme made for unique offerings.
The bounty was enjoyed by many, all for free, and everything grown in the gardens is without any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Mushroom compost was provided by East Wind Nursery and many of our started plants came from Bob’s Market in Wellsville.
If you visited the gardens this year then you couldn’t miss the flowers circling the outside ring of the labryinth. With varieties to vast to list, the daffodil, columbine, iris, and black-eyed-susans are just a few flowers that brought color all season.
None of this beauty, nourishment, entertainment, or relaxation could be possible without a dedicated group of volunteers and the Glanzman family who generously allow the garden to flourish on private property. Local Girl Scouts and other civic groups also pitched in to help, and many of the visitors helped by picking up litter, pulling a weed or two, and stocking up the sidewalk chalk for the kids.
2024 was truly a group effort, a village effort, and we look forward to an even better 2025!!
If you are interested in volunteering or contributing to the Fassett Greenspace please look us up and make contact! Connect via Facebook or email anytime, artforruralamerica@gmail.com
