Middleton's Bock Community Garden Wins Orchard

The Edy’s Fruit Bar brand and the The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation have awarded the City of Middleton’s Bock Community Garden 20 fruit trees and an irrigation system. Bock Community Garden is one of five programs nationwide that was awarded an orchard on May 1 as part of the Communities Take Root program.

In March of this year, Bock Community Garden was named one of 80 finalists for this grant. Beginning on March 15, Bock Community Gardeners (and their friends, families, neighbors, and acquaintances, and everyone else they came in contact with), the Middleton Chamber of Commerce Director, the Middleton Outreach Ministry Distribution Center Manager, City staff in various departments, elected officials (including the district 6 alderperson’s cat), Middleton residents and their family members across the country (and even some in Canada!) scrambled furiously to gain votes for Bock Community Garden via listservs, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, telephone calls, signs with tear-off sheets, and practically every other mode of communication you can think of - short of renting a blimp - to gain votes.

Although the City lost a few E-Government subscribers due to the incessant string of emails that were going out about this opportunity (we apologize, and we hope you’ll re-subscribe), the efforts paid off and Bock Community Garden received a whopping 13,000 votes! In keeping with the ‘Good Neighbor’ spirit, we encourage our voters to continue to vote daily (www.communitiestakeroot.com) for the following Madison gardens: Allied Wellness Center, Eagle Heights Community Garden, The Kids Garden at Troy Gardens, and Wingra Park.

Many thanks to Angie Carey, Community Gardens Task Force chairwoman, and Sustainability Committee member, for writing the grant application. Here is a brief description of the project as written in the grant application:

In early April, 44 enthusiastic gardeners will gather at the Bock community Garden for its grand opening. The fence and water will be in place, the plots tilled and marked off and the children’s garden waiting for small hands to dig in. Soon, buckets and scales will be laid out to gather produce for the garden’s “Plant A Row For the Hungry” program which will provide thousands of pounds of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables for our local food pantry “MOM”. The living fence will take shape as vines weave their way across the grid, providing a beautiful backdrop for the orchard that lays in wait, cleared and ready for the young trees. In time, the fruit trees will provide more than a scenic gathering space in spring and throughout the rest of the season. These trees will also provide fresh apples, pears and cherries to people in need and serve as an education space for the children in the garden. The orchard is an integral part of the Bock garden and the garden community itself. More than 50 volunteers are dedicated to the development of the Bock garden and orchard, and have been working hard for close to a year to make this happen. Many live in close proximity, some with a view of the space, others a short walk away. The countless hours volunteered in planning the garden, raising funds to pay for a fence and irrigation system underscores their dedication to the success of this orchard.