It takes a village to raise a community garden

FAISON — On a sweltering Saturday in July, when many folks were hunkered down in air-conditioned comfort, George Carr was outside battling the heat. His only protection from the scorching sun was a broad-brim hat with a neck flap and a small patch of shade beside a storage building, to which he could retreat for brief periods of respite. Carr’s mission on this particular day was to remove weeds from an area in the Faison Community Garden where he planned to plant okra.

But Carr, who is employed full-time as a clinical social worker in Goldsboro, wasn’t complaining. “I spend a lot of time out here,” he said. “It’s kind of my therapy.” The time he spends in the garden during the evenings and weekends is reminiscent of his childhood, when his Mama kept a garden and his uncle farmed.

The community garden — open to anyone who wishes to harvest from it — is bound on three sides by Sampson, Goshen, and Center streets, on a site donated (or sold for a nominal amount) to the town by the pickle plant (now Bay Valley Foods). When owned by the pickle plant, two structures stood on the site, a brick building that was two or more stories high, and a long, open wooden structure that stood about four feet tall. “Back in those decades, we had a lot migrant workers who would work for a season and then leave and go back,” Carr recalled. “And they would actually live up under this structure.” That structure and the brick building have both since been torn down.

Around the same time the town came into possession of the site in 2012, Carr’s wife, Celena, asked for and received permission from the town to apply for a grant being offered by the North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association in conjunction with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, for community gardens. The town was awarded the $3,000 grant, and Celena established the garden and ran it for the first four or five years, with George eventually taking over its management. The garden has always been a family affair for the Carrs; their three sons have worked in it, and George’s parents have been supportive in various ways throughout the years.

While the Carr family has led the way in the garden, George Carr emphasized that many other people and organizations also deserve credit for its success. One man who was instrumental from the start was Howard Fisackerly, Southern Produce Distributors’ chief operating officer. Prior to determining that a garden would be on the lot, the town had leveled it by covering one side with clay, leaving Carr in a quandary as to how to work the clay, when Fisackerly happened along.

“I was standing in the garden alone before it opened, and Howard came up and asked if I was okay,” Carr said. He then explained his dilemma to Fisackerly. “Howard said he would be right back, and in about a half an hour, drove up with a road grader and magically manipulated the blade and broke the ground over the whole site. I walked behind him with a bucket, pulling glass, bricks, concrete, and trash. And that’s how we got started. It was a miracle.” Fisackerly remained supportive of the garden until he retired from Southern Produce in 2017 and moved to Mississippi.

Living just a few blocks from the garden is Joe Oakes, who brings his tractor and tiller to do initial site preparation each year, followed by Carr using a wheel hoe or smaller tiller, as needed. Carr pointed out that the small tiller he’d used for many years “was on its last leg,” so last year, Faison Improvement Group stepped up, purchased a new one, and donated it to the garden.

One year, Carr received help from an agriculture teacher and students at North Duplin High School, who helped install the trellis that supports the grapevines and blackberry bushes. They also donated apple trees and a flowering cherry tree. “They had an impact,” Carr noted.

Local resident Sheila Brock helps with weeding and general garden upkeep, as she’s able, and two other individuals who aren’t physically able to work have “made small financial contributions — small, but important and significant contributions — to the garden each year to try to help out,” Carr said.

Since the garden’s inception, Clifton Seed Company — an almost century-old Faison business — has donated seeds every year and sometimes seedlings left over from their growers.

An online organization, KidsGardening, recently awarded the garden a $200 grant to install more pollinator plants.

Another supporter Carr counts on is Jeff Brown of Bay Valley Foods. In addition to securing a financial donation for the garden from Bay Valley a couple of years ago, Brown is also hands-on in the garden.

“In the last couple of years since he got that job [at Bay Valley] and moved down here, he’s been a big supporter and he comes out and he plants a section every year,” Carr said of Brown. “The last two years, he planted a big section of corn, trying different things, and he comes out here and helps me.”

The garden has received a boost from three different Eagle Scout projects. “We are really thankful to Scout Troop 48 here in Faison and those young men; they’ve done an outstanding job out here,” said Carr, as he pointed out a bluebird house, a bee hotel, garden signage, flower beds, and a storage shed — all courtesy of the Scouts.

The Town of Faison has backed the garden in various ways. “The Town has always provided all the water the garden uses,” Carr said, “and this year provided the two sprinklers and water timer.” Furthermore, the Town has begun including the garden in its budget, providing, Carr said, from $500 to $1,500 per fiscal year. Recently, that funding was used to purchase materials that will be used to re-do the trellis area this winter. Carr named Faison executive administrator Jimmy Tyndall as an early and long-time supporter.

As thankful as he is for all the help he has received and still does receive, the fact is that there are still plenty of times when Carr is toiling away on his own. And, he admitted, he could use more help. “I don’t mind coming out here and doing the work and getting dirty,” he said. “I like doing the work, but I need another person who can organize volunteers, organize workdays, handle the social media.”

He has reached out to both North Duplin and the University of Mount Olive, hoping teachers and students in agricultural programs would be interested in volunteering. Other than North Duplin’s involvement years ago, he hasn’t had any luck with the schools, but insisted that he’s not giving up.

And, he said he’s often approached by people who tell him they’d like to help, but they don’t know what to do. For anyone in that category, the answer is easy, Carr said: “If you see a weed, pull it. If you see something that needs water, water it.”

From the beginning, the Carrs envisioned that when someone saw something that needed to be done in the garden, they would do it. “That was the hope and still is the hope,” Carr said. “Eventually we’ll get there.”

Want to know more about the Faison Community Garden? Look for another story in the Tribune this coming weekend.