Community Garden Hosting Open House

There are few things better than homegrown fruits and vegetables, and there are plenty at the Salem Greenspace, a one-year old community garden at Palmer Cove Park.

The garden will host its second open house on Thursday, July 30 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with a variety of fruits and vegetables grown in the garden being given away to open house participants.

The lush green garden space is thanks in large part to the efforts of Salem High School teacher Matt Buchannan and his team of student workers.

Some of the recent improvements at the community garden include a versatile meeting roomthat has been constructed and stained, ready to host classroom activities and cooking lessons and new garden boxes that were built raised to offer a seating platform for gardeners of all physical abilities.

Soon to come will be a self-sustained rain collection system with gravity irrigation, keeping Greenspace “off the grid.”

Proposed by the Salem YMCA to further youth development and community building, Salem Greenspace is predominately funded by Partners Healthcare and North Shore Medical Center, with planning and design support from Mass in Motion Salem.

“We’ve had the vision for this community space for a long time,” said YMCA Program Director Charity Lezama. “With the help of our partners we’ve been able to really hit the ground running.”

Salem Greenspace occupies a retrofitted former batting cage and is next to the existing community garden at Palmer Cove.

Buchannan, who ran Salem High School’s sustainability lab, oversees the garden and has been responsible for the conversion process, as well as hiring six student workers. Buchannan and the YMCA worked with North Shore Career Center and the Workforce Investment Board to secure funding for the students’ hourly wages.

“Anyone who wants to can come garden,” said Buchannan. “Come by with your children and grandchildren for berry picking or sign up to teach a lesson in the classroom.”

The Salem Greenspace team is at the garden every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon and Sunday evenings from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.