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lent garden club.
That recommendation turned out 
to matter. Hannemann moved here 
in 2008 and found some of her first 
local friends through the Maplewood 
Garden Club. “They welcomed me to 
this town and made me feel like part 
of the community,” she says. “They 
are still part of my core friend group.”
After leaving Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden, she became a licensed arbor­
ist for SavATree but found that her 
favorite part of the job was teaching 
people about trees. Eventually, she 
moved into full-time teaching. The 
garden club, she says, kept her hands 
dirty, “literally and figuratively.”
That practical, hands-dirty spirit 
still defines the youth program.
In early spring, participants pre­
pare the beds by digging the soil and 
mixing in compost. They pull the 
weeds that made themselves at home 
over the winter. They use square-foot 
gardening, stringing the long beds 
into smaller plots so they can make 
the best use of limited growing space. 
It is a method 
well 
suited 
to 
M a p l e w o o d , 
where many fam­
ilies love the idea 
of growing food 
but may be work­
ing with modest 
yards, narrow side 
beds or a thick 
overhead canopy.
In late spring, 
the garden is fo­
cused on cool-
season 
crops: 
lettuce, radishes, 
spinach, snap peas, broccoli, kale, 
cabbage and carrots. As the season 
warms, summer crops will move in: 
beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, 
beets and basil. Some plants, includ­
ing kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, 
beets and Swiss chard, can carry on 
through much of the year, produc­
ing through spring, summer and fall.
For children, the harvest is often 
where the magic happens. Carrots 
and radishes are especially satisfy­
ing because they are hidden until the 
moment they are pulled. A child can 
tug at green leaves and have no idea 
what is waiting below: a perfect rad­
ish, a tiny carrot, a lopsided surprise 
or the kind of vegetable that looks 
as if it might walk away on its own.
Community member Daphne 
Berkovits says those moments are 
among her favorites: watching a 
child pull up “a funny two-legged 
carrot” or seeing their face after tast­
ing a freshly harvested radish. The 
garden, she says, has also become 
part of the rhythm of her year. Beds 
are cleaned and strung after the 
snow melts. Snap peas go in as close 
to St. Patrick’s Day as possible. To­
matoes wait until the weather is reli­
ably warm.
“Every year has its quirks. You 
can’t get too attached to the out­
come,” Berkovits says. “Ultimately, 
providing fresh food that the gar­
den gives to local families feels like a 
sweet, small gift of community.”
That gift is then bagged, labeled 
and delivered.
When vegetables are ready, par­
ticipants harvest them for families to 
take home and for donation to local 
Ameer Azma, age 6,  is securing a 
new planting. Photo by Julia Maloof 
Verderosa.
Gardeners start early spring lettuce planting. L to R: Mike 
Danchisko with his son Miles, Zoe Hanson and Danielle Her­
ring Dazulma with daughter Camille.
Learn more
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