Please get in 1 work hour before July.
Work Calendar Minton Stable Garden 2024
We need work day leaders!! If you want to lead a work day, please email mintonstablecommunitygarden@gmail.com. Leaders of work days get a bonus hour towards their total volunteer hours.
Both waitlisters & gardeners should use this form.
Here are some quick links for 2024
Note: the payment info doesn’t update automatically, give the steering committee volunteers a few days to record.
We have updated the waitlist process for 2021. Please fill out the Plot Waitlist Form and you will be added to the contact list for the garden (instead of just emailing the garden address as in the past). You will get confirmation by being invited to join the garden google group- you will get updates about work hour times and events. Submit the Waitlist Work Hours form when you do any hours (or the person running the workday will do it for you).
Once you complete your 4 hours you will be added the completed work hours waitlist for open plots. Plots will be assigned in the order of time from completion of your work hours (so the sooner you complete your hours the better!). A few plots open up every year but its hard to know what will happen! We will share your “place in line” at the end of the season in the winter.
At this time about 6 households/people are “qualified” by completing their min. 4 work hours and are waiting for a plot to open up. Quite a number of others haven’t completed the full 4 work hours but might anytime this season. Sometimes existing plot holders want to share a plot vs. give it up and we reach out to those who have completed hours to see if they want to share. If they “share” a plot they can keep on waiting for their own in the same order!
On the topic of safety in the garden with respect to COVID-19, we ask that people follow the current public health guidelines and continue to practice social distancing by remaining at least 6 feet from other individuals.
We still want to be able to provide common tools for people to use since we understand that many gardners do not have these tools at home. These common tools will still be provided for gardening but in order to prevent the spread of the virus, we ask that you please take the following precautions:
|
The Minton Stable Gardens was begun by John Carroll, a Stonybrook resident, who appreciated the horticultural and community beautification potential of the Minton Stable grounds. After the stable closed, he started introducing both food and flowering plants onto the grounds and in time was joined by other Stonybrook residents. Soon the garden became the central outdoor gathering place for Stonybrook Neighborhood Association events such as the neighborhood cookout and the neighborhood yard sale.
The Minton Stable Community Garden sits on land formerly occupied by the Minton Stables, a horse stable established in 1897 to service what was then the newly created Franklin Park. Long time residents remember the stables as a source of fascination, recreation and employment for area youth. The Minton Stables endured, under various owners, into the late 1980s when the structures were damaged by fire and the abandoned land and buildings became the responsibility of the City of Boston. Because the stable predated most surrounding neighborhood development, its odd shaped lot is a welcome relief from the largely uniform multi family dwellings that surround the site today. The shape also makes it the focal point for many major neighborhood streets and pathways. Shortly after the last horses were removed from the stable, local residents began visiting the former livery to retrieve manure for backyard gardens. In the process, neighbors became acquainted and established small wildflower gardens on the property. The new activity deterred illegal dumping and other unlawful practices, reversing the decline of the site. A fertile oasis was taking shape in the midst of a particularly dense neighborhood of triple-decker homes, apartment buildings, businesses, schools and transportation facilities. As the condemned stable structures were demolished, neighbors began to realize the potential for the Minton Stable Gardens in its existing form. In the early 1990’s, the neighborhood was able to draw on an active Crime Watch organization, along with a cohesive neighborhood council, and an increasingly diverse array of trades people, artists and professionals seeking a sense of community in the place where they lived. As the stable buildings came down and the surrounding security fence fell into disrepair, more and more neighbors began to find uses for the open lawns, shady corners and fertile soil of the former stable. These uses included horseshoes, volleyball, community yard sales, barbecues, dog walking and simple relaxation in harmony with an increasing number of flower and vegetable gardens. With neighbors gathering to care for and beautify the site, an informal organization to oversee the gardens began to take shape. The City of Boston’s spring cleanup program regularly drew residents to the stable lot each year. Local businesses donated decorative fencing, tools, water containers and wood chips for paths as well as food for cleanup volunteers. Neighbors brought in fruit trees for the beginnings of a small orchard, and the shortcuts through a vacant lot to the local subway station were improved and beautified. In 1999 a proposal was made by Minton Stable Gardens Association and Boston Urban Gardeners and accepted by the City of Boston to formalize the preservation of the site as open space under community control. The Minton Stable Community Garden provides that the site will always be open to members of the general public, not a gated exclusive land-use but a property owned and managed for the greater community. Read more history archived by Sally Bunch, one of the Minton Stable Community Gardeners: More about the Founder, John CarrollHow it has been told is that John Carroll envisioned the garden. He would clear an area and plant seeds. Clear another area and plant more seeds. Neighbors would say, “Oh, I’d love a small plot.” So he would give his plot away and start a new one. Many others have been involved in the evolution of the garden from a weed infested dump site to Community Garden, but John was the beginning. In 2007 the Jamaica Plain, MA community lost a dear friend in John Carroll. Here, in a short documentary made in 1994 by Stephen McCarthy and found on YouTube.
|
Groups of gardeners from the community got together in September 2009 to prepare the land and plant the wildflower habitat in the Minton Stable Community Garden Williams Street Paddock. The habitat is designed to provide space for gathering, picnics, and music events and to enhance the beauty and health of the garden and community with plantings of native wildflowers that attract birds, butterflies, pollinators, fireflies. The garden will develop over time as more plants are added.
Here is a link to a Picasa slide show of the wildflower habitat getting going: watch the YouTube version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlnaxSBglpo
Minton Stable Community Garden 
You must be logged in to post a comment.