Monroe Community Garden blossoms at Town Hall

Over the past few months, Monroe residents may have noticed a new garden outside of Town Hall full of fresh produce, flowers, and more. The person behind the project is resident Kelly Imhof, who built the garden to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest national achievement awarded by Girl Scouts of the USA.

“I have a love for gardening, and I wanted to give back to the community because, honestly, Monroe is just great,” said Imhof, 18. “Everyone is there for each other so I wanted to create something that could give back to the community. In the garden, there is a plot designated for local food pantries. All the produce that grows in that raised bed is donated so people who may not be as fortunate as others to enjoy fresh produce will now have access to it.”

Construction of the 70-by-30-foot garden with 20 raised beds, each 8 feet by 4 feet and 20 inches in height, began May 4.

“May 4 was a very long day,” Imhof said with a laugh. “In the beginning, we spread woodchips to keep down the landscaping fabric to prevent weeds from coming up into the garden and then began building the actual plots. We leveled them out and filled them with cardboard, twigs, leaves, and other things to bring nutrients into the soil. We eventually put in the filler soil and then the better soil on top. Mayor Neil Dwyer, Mr. [Steven] Thau, Mr. [Chris] Ferraro and my dad were a big help.”

In her plot, Imhof is growing tomatoes, zucchini and peppers, though some plots consist of flowers. It is up to each individual plot owner to decide what they want to grow. To secure a plot, interested parties filled out an application with Monroe Senior Center Director Ann Marie Morris and paid an upkeep fee of $35.

Inspired by her older sister, Jaclyn, who created and ran an arts and crafts summer camp for children to earn her Gold Award several years ago, Imhof knew she, too, would one day earn a Gold Award.

The idea of building a garden for her Gold Award project had long been in the back of Imhof’s head. During a discussion with Morris, whom she knew from the time her grandparents attended the Senior Center, the two decided it would be nice to help center residents build their own mini gardens to go. So Imhof, with help from her fellow Troop 307 Girl Scouts, did just that.

The experience laid the foundation for the Monroe Community Garden.

“I have been working on this for two years now and did a ton of research for this community garden,” said Imhof, a Monroe-Woodbury High School graduate who is headed to the University of New Haven next month to study criminal justice investigative services. “I had no idea about everything it would entail until I began researching it and it took off from there. Because I am the one who built it, I am responsible for weeds. Watering is up to each individual plot holder and there is a hose and can for that.”

Part of that research consisted of traveling to places like Montgomery, Warwick, and Greenwood Lake to look at community gardens in those towns.

In fact, during the garden’s construction process, Imhof did not hesitate to call contacts she had made in neighboring towns to make sure she was doing things the right way. An example of this was when she was putting up chicken wire and called a Montgomery resident to make sure she was doing it correctly.

“I have known Kelly since she was little because her grandparents went here,” Morris said. “I was her mentor on this for about two years and we met almost weekly. I could have told her how to do the project but instead I encouraged her to do research, including seeing other gardens, which she did with the help of her mother. What she has done is take the best parts of other community gardens and incorporate them into this garden. We spent a tremendous amount of time meeting, talking on the phone, and texting each other.”

Along with the time spent researching and building the garden, Imhof did quite a bit of fundraising with help from countless local businesses, churches and community members.

Her primary source of fundraising was through bottles and cans, which she would pick up at places like Amendola’s, Villa Positano and Planet Pizza. She also received bottles and cans from local churches and the Monroe-Woodbury School District. Businesses such as Lowes, Home Depot, Warwick Rental, Tractor Supply, Becks, Bilt-Well Fencing, Capella industries, and others pitched in to help.

“My parents, Scott and Kathleen Imhof, my sister, Jaclyn, and my brother, Kyle, provided endless support, guidance and manual labor for the last two months,” Imhof said. “Town of Monroe workers Gerry, John, Brendan helped clear the area and Danny Almash, Logan Robbins and Kevin Gilson also helped. Others who donated hours of their time were Victoria Campbell and Noah Sequeiros.”

To get approval for the project, Imhof had to go before the town board last year. On July 18, the Girl Scouts also approved her project for her Gold Award, which also happened to the the ribbon cutting ceremony for the garden.

“Honestly, I was pretty scared because I had never done anything like that before, but they were very supportive, especially Supervisor [Anthony] Cardone and Councilman Sal Scancarello,” she said. “When I addressed the board, we discussed how great it could be. To see it come to fruition is quite satisfying. My role was to build it and then gift it to the town.”