Volunteers pitch in on Patchogue's garden

With a half-eaten beet in her mouth, Ericka Carey stood in Patchogue's new community garden clutching a bundle of freshly harvested veggies, motioning to her 6-year-old son, Edward, to try one.

"We've been growing a little bit of everything," Carey said, sweeping her hand over tidy rows of green cabbage, summer squash, parsley and cauliflower. "This whole garden started from nothing, and look at it now," Carey said, smiling.

On a one-seventh acre plot of land behind the village's parks and recreation building, Patchogue's garden has grown quickly, already enjoying a core group of 70 gardeners, said leader Michael West.

"It really has been a very community effort," West said, noting that the village donated the land and the labor to raise the fence. "Volunteers showed up in droves to dig and to build and to plant and so on."

Volunteers helped construct the 9-by-20-foot beds and divide them into 44 garden sections used by nearby families, a Girl Scout troop, members of the local arts community and Bay Elementary School's gardening club.

A turtle laid eggs in a long heap of dirt aside the garden, making a nest that volunteers surrounded with Spanish lavender, perennial hibiscus and the butterfly-attracting caryopteris flowers.

"It's wonderful how passionate people can be about beautiful things like this," said Carole Amodeo, a village resident of more than 60 years. "It's almost spiritual."

The lumber for the beds and the fence enclosing the garden was bought by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, which will offer gardening and nutritional support.

Gardeners said they can grow fresh, local vegetables free of pesticides -- and build a sense of community across social circles.

"It's the first time we've ever had anything like this," agreed Amodeo, who had just harvested eight fingerling tomatoes. "It's really bringing together a community and letting us learn from each other."

West, in particular, wanted to ensure that the village's Latino community was well-represented. "Very little of it was easy."

After speaking with several community members, West attended a meeting of Madres Latinas Amigas, which builds community among local Latina mothers.

Member Ericka Carey said she and others take turns tending the plants, which they will donate to other madres.

"Many of these mothers rent apartments with no place for a garden, or some rent houses where the landlords don't let them have a garden," Carey said. "It's a great opportunity for them to participate in the community and to teach their children how to grow plants."

Kids, in particular, have gotten to "see they're part of something bigger than their family -- their community," said Girl Scout troop leader Denise Dougherty.

Village resident Leslie McHugh, a local attorney agreed, adding, "It's really good for friendship. They're getting to know their neighbors and see a tangible result from their work . . . My son's autistic, and when we go on outings here, he has a sense of being involved, too."