Grand Opening Garden Party

For all ages

Northern Dauphin Library
Wednesday, June 21 at 4:00 p.m.

Join us for a garden party at Northern Dauphin Library to celebrate the opening of the Lend & Tend Seed Library and Mary’s Garden! We will have games and crafts for all ages, as well as the musical stylings of Ray Holland. Come support the Friends of Northern Dauphin Library by purchasing and enjoying a PA Farmshow milkshake!

Registration is not required.

Growing together: Northern Dauphin Library’s community garden cultivates unity and healthy food access

Libraries blessed with spacious, beautiful backyards have decisions to make – namely, what to do with all that acreage. The staff and members of the Northern Dauphin Library had a vision.

“We wanted to start a garden, a focal point, a destination point, and a way to engage the community,” said Manager Lizzy Baldwin.

The dream is coming true as the tight-knit, rural Northern Dauphin region coalesces around a community garden meant to educate and battle food insecurity. New partnerships are forming over the tomatoes and eggplants that strengthen community ties and bring healthy meal options to a food desert.

The Library also created a unique Lend & Tend Seed Library, where residents choose seeds from a cheerful Library display and, if they choose, bring back the produce to other community members to take home and enjoy.

“The mission of libraries is the same, but the way that looks is changing,’’ Baldwin said. “Libraries are evolving to meet the needs of their communities.”

Mary’s Garden at Northern Dauphin Library in Lykens was originally the idea of Mary Witmer, The Library’s public services assistant for 10 years, until her retirement this year.

“She is a big green thumb,” said Baldwin, who put the idea in motion last year. “We all love Mary and wanted to give this to her as a gift from us.”

Baldwin contacted Bonnie Kent, Dauphin County’s dynamic community liaison, for tips on growing a community garden similar to the one behind the area’s Dauphin County human services office. Kent connected Baldwin with Penn State Health, which is facilitating 13 community gardens in the region through generous funding from a Rite Aid Healthy Futures grant.

Before long, a garden was taking shape in the circular, 36-foot-diameter greenspace behind The Library. Baldwin and Library staff constructed 10 beds and are building two raised beds, possibly for pollinators. Food grown there is shared in the Library, with any excess going to local food pantries.

Volunteers are raising their gloved hands, too. A Halifax grandmother whose grandchildren live in Wiconisco, near The Library, is offering her time while she’s in the neighborhood. A local master gardener dropped by to say that the group is conducting outreach in Northern Dauphin County, and offered to provide programming.

Penn State Health Community Health Director Ashley Visco and Community Garden Initiative Program Manager Laurie Crawford are providing invaluable assistance in making the garden sustainable, helping guide long-range planning to plant and harvest this year’s veggies – and enthusiasm — for many years to come. Funding has helped further equip the garden, and a successful workshop sent participants home with their own container gardening kits.

Penn State Health-supported community gardens are planted in areas where grocery stores are scarce and not easily accessible, families are experiencing trauma, or Penn State Health pediatric patients suffer food insecurity.

The long distances and scarcity of grocery stores in Northern Dauphin County create a food desert, preventing many residents from reaching healthy food sources.

Penn State Health has also linked its community gardens into a supportive network, convening community garden leaders to share challenges, tips, and ideas.

“The gardens build connections,” Crawford said. “The relationships will sustain. That will all continue to exist.”

Northern Dauphin Library’s Lend & Tend Seed Library operates from a shelving unit repurposed by staff to resemble a canopied fruit stand. Seeds have come entirely through donation. Recipients are encouraged, but not required, to return seeds from their crop to “seed” the collection for the next season.

Baldwin saw a good fit for the seed library in a region that is, paradoxically, a rural community that is also a food desert.

“My staff have really taken to it,” said Baldwin. “They’re excited to check seeds out. They’re outstanding salespeople.”

·         Join neighbors and garden enthusiasts for Grand Opening Garden Party, celebrating the opening of the Lend & Tend Seed Library and Mary’s Garden, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 21, at Northern Dauphin Library. This free event for all ages offers games and crafts, music, and the chance to buy PA Farm Show Milkshakes to support the Friends of Northern Dauphin Library. No registration is required. Just come out for the fun!

·         Gardeners ages 18+ can get together to share tips and ideas, and even have the chance to get their gloves dirty in Mary’s Garden, with the Green Thumb Garden Club, meeting at the Northern Dauphin Library 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. June 26 and July 10. Register now.

·         Kids and adults get to enjoy the tastes of summer from veggies grown right in Northern Dauphin Library’s own backyard, with the Taste Test Kitchen, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9. Register now.