Camas community garden plots available

Gardeners can reserve beds at now, pay sliding scale fee in May

By Kelly Moyer
April 13, 2023 3:00 pm
Latest News, Life, News

The Camas community garden, located at 726 N.E. Fifth Ave., in downtown Camas, is pictured in June 2022. (Kelly Moyer/Post-Record files)

Interested in growing your own food but don’t have the space or tools available at your own Camas-area home? The Camas community garden is now accepting applications for the 2023 growing season.

Located on a city-owned lot at 726 N.E. Fifth Ave. in Camas’ historic downtown, the garden offers 25 plots for local gardening enthusiasts — including three 2-by-6-foot plots created by the Camas Lions Club that meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act – with prices for each plot based on a “pay what you can afford” sliding scale of $25 to $100.

Jacquie Hill, the owner of LiveWell Camas, a movement and wellness studio also located in downtown Camas, was instrumental in creating the community garden. Hill, who secured a $3,000 Main Street America “At Your Side” grant for the community garden in 2021, and partnered with the city of Camas for use of the downtown gardening space, has said she who wanted to provide a space in the city’s historic downtown where “neighbors can come together and spark social change at a local level.”

On Hill’s EatWell Camas website, she says the goal of the community garden is to “create equitable opportunities for food access, education and community space in the downtown area of Camas.”

The EatWell Camas board of directors manage the garden, while LiveWell Camas staff and community volunteers take care of the garden during its off-season.

Hill has said the garden is meant to be run as sustainably as possible.

“These practices will include: partnering with Clark County master gardeners in order to set up compost sites in an easy and maintainable way. We will be a pesticide free garden space, using growing practices that will help to attract beneficial insects, bees, and butterflies,” according to the EatWell Camas community garden site. “Our watering plan will include learning new ways to grow with less water, helping to educate the garden community about these practices and do our best to help our gardens harness the powers of permaculture practices.”

Community gardeners are able to rent a garden bed — available in a variety of plot sizes, including the three ADA-accessible beds; four 4-by-4-foot plots; eight 2-by-6-foot beds; and 10 4-by-8-foot plots — for the growing season, which runs through December.

To ensure that everyone interested in being a part of the community garden has a fair chance of securing a plot, gardeners must reapply for a plot every year.

Hill said there are several varieties of pollinators that rely on the garden’s brush until warmer weather arrives in early May.

Those who have reserved a plot for the garden’s 2023 growing season – and agreed to the garden’s guidelines – will be able to pay their plot fees during the Downtown Camas Association’s annual plant and garden fair, which will run throughout downtown Camas from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 13.

For more information about the community garden or to reserve a spot for the 2023 growing season, visit eatwellcamas.com/plotinquiry.

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