Coaxing Their Victory Gardens To Grow

By Jessica Alpert (@jessprk)
Jul 9, 2010, 3:10 PM
8 Comments

All differences drop at the gates to the Fenway Victory Garden.

With shovels in hand, gardeners Mike Mennonno and Fred Karp belong to a community of individuals who mentor, listen and learn from each other as they coax their gardens to grow.

We visit these gardeners and learn some history from an author and gardening expert about this legendary place, tucked away near the center of town.

Fred Karp, gardener
Mike Mennonno, gardener
Meg Muckenhoupt, author of “Boston’s Gardens and Green Spaces”

John

Many of the gardens are awful. Flowers are jammed into the lots, old lawn furniture, tacky flags, etc.
Tim Horn

To each their own. The gardens are fantastic and run the classic raised bed veggie garden to formal perrenial gardens. 10 spaces for people with special needs and over 20% of the gardeners are seniors. A very diverse and friendly garden and of course these are the original Victory Garden. Certainly not the place to go if you do not want to brush with rif raf.
http://www.dovesandfigs.com Robin Cohen

The gardens are even more of a treasure because they represent all the people who cultivate them and the rich history behind them.
http://megmuck.com Meg Muckenhoupt

Just for the record – my last name is Muckenhoupt, not Huckenhoupt.

Apart from that, it was a pleasure to work with Meghna, an intelligent, talented interviewer who also has an easily misspelled name.
David St.Jean

the gardens are a beautiful oasis of green in the city,hours can be spent there and the hustle and bustle of city lfe just seems to melt away.There are all different types of gardens to enjoy.Each individual gardeners creativity is on display for the world to see it is an awesome thing to see and be a part of.
Victoria

Victory Garden plots are NOT restricted to veteran gardeners! Many new gardeners learn to love gardening through trial and error, and collaboration with others. Yea, sometimes our garden seating is old and funky, but nobody steals junk. Our gardens are about growing, learning, and loving this vibrant city park, togeather!
http://fenwayvictorygardens.com/membership_all.html Richard Rogers

New member applications are encouraged, and the waiting list right now is probably about 6 to 9 months so new applicants can expect to start gardening next season. Gardens are open to anyone who is a Boston resident.

Anyone else interested in supporting the Victory Gardens can join Friends of the Victory Gardens and receive newsletters and an annual tour.

See the Fenway Victory Gardens website for details and applications.
Marie

Great story! Also of note- the gardens are the largest community gardens in the city of Boston, and run by the Fenway Garden Society, a non profit 501c3 organization run 100% by the gardeners as volunteers. They not only take care of the gardens, but are involved with stewardship of the parkland they operate on, work with many open space agencies on park and environmental issues and have over 400 gardeners on 7 acres of parkland. A truly admirable feat!

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Coaxing Their Victory Gardens To Grow