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Proposed Backyard Growers Association Draws Marfa Gardeners

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Gardeners in Far West Texas face a particular set of challenges. How do you keep plants from wilting in the desert sun and nightly chill? Leave your garden unattended for too long, and there may not be much of a garden to come back to. The same can be said about starting an organization from the ground up.

Last month, a group of backyard gardeners gathered at Planet Marfa to discuss the possibility of creating a backyard growers association. The meeting was organized by Jon Johnson of Marfa. This isn’t the first time that Johnson has tried to organize a gardening group. Last year, similar meetings were held to create a gardeners’ co-op.  Unfortunately for Johnson, nothing came of those meetings.

This time however, Johnson has decided to take a different tact. He wants to make a nonprofit; one that can go after grant funding. But Johnson has a long way to go. They’ll need to elect a board of trustees and draft legal documents formalizing the group’s purpose. But that’s still far into the future for a group that has just met.

Delve into the town’s past and you’ll find it has a history of garden related projects. One such effort on the northwest side of town is the Wagon Wheel community garden.

Half a block north of Marfa Elementary School, sits a ghost of a garden. It’s quiet here now. What was once filled with vegetables is now overrun with weeds. The fence to keep animals from getting in is still up. Outside sit three wire enclosures half-filled with what seems like uniform gray hay. But look closely and you’ll find yourself staring at extremely old compost. A sign sits out in front painted with a wagon wheel. The wheel, once yellow, has faded under the elements. Looking at the garden you can’t help but wonder what it looked like in its prime.

Sandra Harper started the garden in 2007 with the support of the school. She had started Farm Stand Marfa a year earlier and this was a natural extension of her philosophy. But come two years later Wagon Wheel was closed and has been ever since.  Just outside the elementary school are planter beds for another garden that was active as recently as last year, but now lies fallow. These aren’t the only garden projects in town.

The Chinati Foundation has a community garden on its campus. It was started in 2011 by Ann Marie Nafziger, Director of Education and Outreach at Chinati. Volunteers help at the garden and routinely get the chance to take home produce.

Community gardens come and go, year in and year out, depending on institutional and volunteer support. Whether or not the backyard gardeners association will have a sustainable future remains to be seen. While the group did not formally establish itself, they did take one small but critical step forward: They would meet to build a garden at a member’s home in the following weeks.