High school student and town booster helps start community garden

Nourishing a community in body and soul

Sarah Coltrain and Madison Bowen, above at Veterans Memorial Park, are the drivers behind a new community garden that the town recently agreed to let them establish at the park.

Volunteers realize dream of community garden for Ayden

By Emily Bronson

Aplot of land in the Veterans Memorial Park is soon to be the place of a new community garden started by D.H. Conley High-School junior Madison Bowen.

With help of Sarah Coltrain, an Ayden homesteader and creator of the Facebook group “Ayden What’s Happening,” Bowen said her plan for the community garden is to be just that: a place of growth within the Ayden community.

Bowen and her community supporters overcame their most challenging hurdle and got the break they’ve hoped for when Ayden Board of Commissioners voted during its May 9 meeting to allow use of the town land for the garden. Bowen said her inspiration for this garden came from a community garden in Greenville.

“Some of my friends are a part of the Love a Sea Turtle group, and I had originally volunteered with them before,” Bowen said. “I thought it was such a cool and amazing experience for teenagers like me and I wanted to incorporate something like that in my community.”

So far, the garden’s startup phases have gone smoothly. Bowen has been thankful and overwhelmed by the amount of support her community has shown already. She said Sarah Coltrain, whom she found via the Facebook group, has generously shared her help, energy and vision for this community garden.

“I am glad I found Sarah because she has really been the ‘let’s-do-this,’ ‘let’s-keep-going’ force of this garden,” Bowen said.

Although vegetables and fruits will go into in the garden rst, Bowen’s biggest priority is growing the future of her community, she said. e produce grown and harvested from the garden will be given back to the community, Bowen said.

Breaking ground is the rst step, with planting and caring for the plants soon to come, with hopes that fall will be a busy time for the community garden, she said.

Coltrain said she’s excited by the capabilities of this garden. As someone who has dedicated her time, e ort and her social media support to fuel community engagement, she said she can’t wait to see what this garden grows to be.

“ e possibilities, the connections within the community, the schools, the Boys & Girls Club, working with the Housing Authority, just really being able to provide food to our neighbors is the inspiration for this garden,” Coltrain said.

Without the help of the community, this project would not be as far along as it is, Caltrain and Bowen both said.

With almost 200 supporters gained though social media e orts and marketing the start of a community garden, Coltrain said it’s remarkable to see the amount of support for bringing a little bit of community pride back to Ayden. e lockdowns due to COVID-19 have really taken a toll on the sense of community, Coltrain and Bowen added. e idea for the community garden was born in a desire to make up for lost time and the Ayden community with a mental health outlet, Bowen said.

“I think it’s important for communities to start looking more at doing collective activities together,” Coltrain said. “Getting back to working with your neighbor, getting to know your neighbor, grow food with your neighbor. It would just be a service for the community because we’re all in this world together. We’ve got to make it as enjoyable as possible for one another.”