The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters Community Garden is beginning the 2023 gardening season by celebrating its final year as guests of Benny and Julie Benson, owners of the Sisters Eagle Air property on East Barclay Drive. The Benson family has hosted gardeners using a half-acre of property since 2012.

Garden leadership recently learned that this year is to be the last season as guests of the Bensons, who now need to use this property for other purposes.

“We are grateful to the Benson family for their generous use of their property,” said Nancy Bright, vice president of the nonprofit Sisters Community Garden. “Ten years is a significant amount of time for the Bensons to allow us to use their land at no charge.”

The volunteer-led organization is now actively searching for a new location for its 49 raised beds, which includes shared vegetable, herb, raspberry, blueberry, and currant beds. The group also tends apple trees, a butterfly garden, and a compost area, and maintains a shed and a 20-by-40-foot greenhouse.

“We’ve enjoyed the enormous benefits of having the greenhouse, which allows us to grow tomatoes to ripening free from Sisters’ intermittent but disastrous summer frosts,” Bright said. “Our greenhouse also allows optimistic gardeners to grow lettuce, spinach, and cilantro in the cold of winter when the greenhouse is heated only by sun-warmed 55-gallon drums of water.”

The Garden’s board of directors is optimistic that a new site for the Community Garden will be found, and that gardeners can begin planning the move of the existing infrastructure. The organization needs an equivalent amount of space that has access to water and electricity, is in full sun, and is accessible to vehicles

The Sisters Community Garden strives to foster community connections. Each year, as many as 42 families use the Garden’s raised, irrigated beds and greenhouse to grow fruit, flowers, and vegetables. For the 2023 gardening season, Garden leadership has made a commitment to grow food for NeighborImpact to distribute to its clients. NeighborImpact represents and serves economically disadvantaged residents of Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

For more information on the Sisters Community Garden, visit at http://www.sisters communitygarden.org