Concord’s Community Gardens
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BY THE CONCORD COMMUNITY GARDEN COORDINATORS
Since the town’s establishment in 1635, working the soil has been part of Concord’s identity and character. Emerson’s ‘green Musketaquid’ and ‘meadowed farms’ flourished from the beginning, thanks to the fertile agricultural land. Community gardening in Concord had its beginnings in 1973, when Dan Monahan, the Director of Natural Resources at that time, investigated the concept being practiced in other parts of the U.S. by those who remembered the success of the WWI and WWII Victory Gardens in local communities throughout the country. Dan’s plan was to establish gardens strategically located on town-owned conservation lands throughout Concord, where citizens would be able to grow their own food and flowers in assigned plots. 46
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Volunteer coordinators from each garden would work together with other gardeners to sort out any problems and handle the logistics of plot assignment, fee collection, equipment purchases, etc. This proved to be critical to the success of the Community Garden program. The initial gardens, consisting of Hugh Cargill, Cousins Field, Peter’s Spring, Barrett’s Mill, and Harrington Park, were launched in 1975 and 1976. Today’s community gardens include the original Hugh Cargill and Cousins Field locations along with East Quarter Farm (2009) and Rogers (2016). Two other community-based gardens that were not part of the town’s program were also established — one in 1977, at GenRad on Baker Avenue, for use by its employees during lunch and after hours; and the other in
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the 1950s for the residents of the Conantum area. The latter is still active. Each of our gardens has its own personality and approach. HUGH CARGILL GARDENS (HCCG) was created in 1975 on land donated to Concord by its namesake in 1799 for the purpose of providing for the poor in the town. In the last two centuries, the town has expanded its goals as the property was divided to enable construction of Alcott Elementary School, the Concord Police and Fire Departments, affordable housing, and infrastructure to protect the Hugh Cargill well, a source of water for the townspeople. When the land was divided by the town in 1959, local farmer Larry Kenney leased and farmed the tract along Walden Street. The community garden
