The George Allen Fulghum Community Garden, located at the corner of Southerland and Pollock streets in Mount Olive, consists of a grapevine; blueberry bushes; apple, pear and persimmon trees; and two raised beds planted with a variety of tomatoes and peppers. All are welcome to help tend and to take home harvest. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mount Olive volunteer to shovel dirt into two new raised beds in the George Allen Fulghum Community Garden at the corner of Southerland and Pollock streets in Mount Olive. (Tabitha Dingess|Courtesy photo)
University of Mount Olive freshmen clean out a greenhouse and weed eat at the George Allen Fulghum Community Garden in Mount Olive. (Tabitha Dingess|Courtesy photo)
Christopher Stancil, of Dudley, repairs and re-stains structures at the George Allen Fulghum Community Garden as part of his Eagle Scout community service. (Debbie Stancil|Courtesy photo)
Grape tomatoes will soon be ready to harvest at Mount Olive’s George Allen Fulghum Community Garden. All are invited to harvest the tomatoes they need and to leave the rest for others. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Everyone is welcome in the George Allen Fulghum Community Garden in Mount Olive. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
The George Allen Fulghum Community Garden is located on the corner of Southerland and Pollock streets in Mount Olive, just three blocks from Steele Memorial Library, which now oversees the garden. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
The garden at the corner of Southerland and Pollock streets in Mount Olive is a community garden in the truest sense of the word: anyone in the community is welcome to pick fruits and vegetables to take home, and everyone is welcome to help keep it tended.
The George Allen Fulghum Community Garden was named for the man who served as its chief champion. Fulghum was a member of the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church, which sponsored the garden, and he was the driving force behind the garden’s establishment and continual upkeep. After his death in 2015, his widow, Lynne, wanted the garden to continue to thrive, but the work to keep it going was more than she could manage. Eventually, in February of 2022, Paige Newcomb, head of adult programming at Steele Memorial Library, met with Lynne and asked that the library — located just three blocks from the garden — be allowed to take over responsibility for the garden. “She was thrilled,” Newcomb recalls.
At the time the library stepped up, the “garden” consisted of an orchard, with a grapevine, blueberry bushes, and apple, pear and persimmon trees. “We were given permission to build two raised beds, and to start taking care of the orchard,” says Newcomb.
With the library spearheading the project, other members of the community jumped in to help get the garden back in shape. Youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mount Olive shoveled dirt into the newly built raised beds. Freshmen from the University of Mount Olive cleaned out the onsite greenhouse and did some weed-eating. And, as part of his Eagle Scout community service, Christopher Stancil, of Dudley, cleaned and stained the site’s bench and vegetable sorting tray.
That first spring, the raised beds were planted with tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, watermelon, and zucchini. This spring, they were planted with a variety of tomatoes and peppers.
“We encourage the community to help themselves to what they need and leave what they don’t,” says Newcomb. “Anyone can go out to the garden and weed, weed eat, mow, and pick vegetables and fruit.
“If you go out there and pick a tomato and you see a weed, pull the weed,” she continues.
Newcomb emphasizes that Fulghum welcomed everyone to the garden. “He wanted everybody to enjoy it. That was his passion.”
The library is intent on carrying on Fulghum’s desire to get as many people involved as possible. “We want to get more people aware of it,” says library assistant Tabitha Dingess. “We’d like to see more people help share the responsibility.”
Anyone who posts photos on social media of tending the garden or harvesting from it is asked to tag the library in their posts. In a Facebook post last year, a mom said that after picking apples and pears, her daughter wanted to buy trees for their yard. “This is the whole purpose of the garden,” says Newcomb, “to get the community interested in planting, growing and maintaining their own food.”
The library will host a Community Garden Fall Festival at the garden on Thursday, September 14, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. It’s free and open to the public. Those who attend will have an opportunity to pick fruit; plus there will be games, and a few vendors.
If you have questions about the garden, please call Paige Newcomb at Steele Memorial Library, 919-299-8105.
