Sept 1, 2020
Medfield began in 1651 as a farming community, although the climate was colder, and the growing season shorter than today. But farms have been extinct in Medfield for decades, with one notable exception: the Medfield Community Gardens, originally on Dale Street and now on Plain Street, with 75 plots, totaling more than an acre under cultivation.
The community gardens are self-governing and self-sustaining, under the benevolent overlordship of Neal Sanders of Pine Street, who calls himself the principal undergardener. Neal maintains a well-written, entertaining, and informative blog, The Principal Undergardner.
The community gardens began in 1976. Here is the first report issued by the Community Gardens Committee, as it appeared in the annual town report:
The Medfield Community Gardens opened on May 1, 1976 on a parcel of town owned land off Dale Street adjacent to the town garage. This area was divided into 42 plots of 20 x 30 feet and assigned to town residents for an annual fee of $5.
The first year’s operation was a great success due primarily to the spirit of cooperation among all participants. In particular, the committee wishes to thank Mr. Roy Owen for his expert advice and assistance to many of the novice gardeners and to Mr. Robert Bryant, Mr. Charles Evans and Mr. Robert Kennedy of the Medfield Highway and Water Departments for their efforts in hauling loam from the town property on Hospital Road, for staking and preparing the plots and installing water lines.
After the close of the first season, the Highway Department again assisted with the hauling of loam from the police station construction site which will allow the addition of six plots for next season. Total revenue turned over to the town for rental of the plots was $210.
Respectfully submitted,
Ellen Gifford, Coordinator
Committee members: R. Edward Beard, Joan M. Bruno, Gertrude H. Ehnes, Doris E. Keller, William Mikelonis , Roy Owen, Mario Pederzini, and Linda F. Whichard.
Reflections on Gardening in Medfield
By Tim Flaherty
It’s August, and it’s hot at the Medfield Community Gardens on Plain Street in full bloom.
Given good fertilizer and perhaps compost, corn is a favorite that absorbs the full sunlight. It’s sweet with every bite and usually starts to get ready for picking right about this time.
Years ago in Medfield, Japanese beetles liked to eat the silk growing out of the top of each ripened ear of corn. The quick remedy for those pests was walking down each row and brushing them off into a can of kerosene, which was considered better than chemical spraying as the air remained clean.
Another problem might be the woodchucks, raccoons, squirrels, and other wildlife invading your garden. So try and come up with a reasonable decoy like putting out some stale bread about 50 feet away from your garden. That way you can hope they’ll eat the stale bread instead of your vegetables.
Until 50 years ago, there were clambakes – always served with corn on the cob – at the old American Legion on Pleasant Street, now the site of the Medfield Garden apartments.
Tomatoes seem to grow in every plot at the Medfield Gardens. There’s nothing sweeter than a fresh picked garden tomato, whether in a salad, on a toasted cheese sandwich, or right from the palm of one’s hand. Like the corn, tomatoes flourish in plenty of sun, and most gardeners keep up with picking off the stems in between the bigger branches that can divert energy and sustenance away from the overall growth and yield of the tomato plants. One recent way of raising tomatoes is by hanging potted tomatoes upside-down on the porch of one’s home.
Green string beans and wax beans quickly spring up and are easy to grow and will most likely be ready to pick by the end of June. When boiled with small pieces of bacon, they can practically be served as a main course at supper. Other vegetables that will quickly ripen are carrots, radishes, beets, green peppers, cucumbers, and Boston lettuce.
Some gardeners at Medfield Gardens have what could be best described as a budding career in floriculture. There are flowers galore at the gardens and within their aromatic blend, one is quick to practically walk straight into the yellow and black garden spiders that wisely spin their webs within the flowers.
The spiders stay close to the center of their web, patiently waiting for grasshoppers, flies, moths, rose beetles or any other insect that has wings. Once an unsuspecting insect flies into the web, the spider quickly wraps the prey into a cocoon and then reinforces the web with fresh silk before injecting the spider’s quarry with poison. An ambitious garden spider will have up to three other insects in storage, ready to eat when that spider works up an appetite.
Addie Cebrowski
A century ago planting a garden was a grand production for Miss Jewel, who lived on Philip Street. She had her gardener, Ewan “Addie” Cebrowski, planting corn on several acres that stretched from the corner of Philip and Nebo Street all the way east to Fairview Road. Addie had two big work horses, named Charlie and Bill. His two sons, Johnnie and Tommy helped cut the tall hay and corn stalks to be stored in the hayloft of the barn. During the winter the hay was fed to the work horses and the four jersey cows that resided in the barn.
Addie planted tomatoes and beans near the Cebrowski home, but being close to a wooded area meant that there were plenty of woodchucks, squirrels and black crows vying for his crops. He used scarecrows and other deterrent methods in the never-ending battle.
4-H
During the late 1950s, 4-H was very popular with Medfield kids. Head, heart, hands, and health are the four aitches. Founded in Ohio in 1902, 4-H is usually thought of as helping kids learn to be farmers. But it has broadened its programs and focus in more recent times to include health, science, and civic engagement mentoring. 4-H serves about six million kids and teens from ages five to eighteen in every walk of life. The largest 4-H facility in Massachusetts is at Sunny Rock Farm in Sharon.
Some 4-H kids raised flowers and vegetable gardens. After tilling the soil, some early sowers started planting early in May, hopefully after the last frost. Many found it safer to delay planting until June to have their gardens yield their flowers or vegetables. Corn had to be planted where it could receive the most sun from dawn till dusk. Quite often if heavy rains poured down, many of the fully grown corn stalks had to be propped up again with plenty of soil after they’d been bent at an angle. If the stalks weren’t straightened right away after the rain passed, the corn would be ruined, bringing disappointment instead of a summer bounty.
One young 4-H kid grew some great Boston lettuce, packed it into a red four-wheeled cart, and sold it door-to-door on Pleasant and Miller Streets, much to the families’ appreciation.
Plants are thought to respond well to sound. Botanists found that playing music to plants helped them to grow faster, which is why many of the gardeners on Plain St. have started talking and playing music to their vegetables and flowers.
With the day’s work done in the garden, it’s time to go home and relax in a comfortable chair with the fan or air conditioner on. With the pleasant beauty of the weather one is easily reminded of the song, Summertime, by George Gershwin. That was a song lovingly remembered at a young age while committing the lyrics and the composition to memory.
The time now is an annual ritual of revelation. Just thinking about Gershwin’s words in the summer make people feel the warmth of the sun that envelopes them. People glow in the brightness of the three months of what we enjoy of a golden time ushered in by June, July and August.
But in September we cherish the day when the foliage begins to change in color like the afterglow of a campfire. The leaves reveal their hidden beauty while the days ended shimmering on the horizon. It all easily reminds us of the fleeting light of the sparks and embers rushing away in our earthly paradise where gardens are our image of the soul and innocence.