Who We Are
We are the New Carlisle Community Garden. We started in 2016 with 1/3 of an acre that we have been allowed to use by the City of New Carlisle on the site of the old Madison St. School. We expanded in 2019 to 2 additional sites: a 10 acre piece of land where the old Westlake school was located that we lease from the Tecumseh Local School District and a .25 acre piece of land behind the New Carlisle Public Library where we teach families how to garden.
This spring we added a lage (~20' x 46') at the Westlake site and will be adding beds at both Westlake and the Library.
What We Do
We help people in the community to grow their own food. We provide raised bed garden plots for $5 a year (with a $25 deposit to insure that the garden plots get cleaned up at the end of the season). We also provide free seeds and plants. With the assistance of the New Carlisle Fire Department, we have water available at Madison St. We have solar panels to install a solar pump to the existing well at the Westlake site.
There are individual plots and community plots. Food raised in the community plots is harvested and sold at the New Carlisle Farmers' Market (to provide maintenance income to the gardens) and distributed weekly during the growing season to the Bethel Churches United Food Bank.
We have worked with the New Carlisle Public Library to provide education in growing food, preparing food for healthy diets, planting, transplanting, tending the garden, harvesting, canning and freezing, seed saving, and composting.
At the Westlake Garden we have planted some native fruit trees and other native plants with a goal of providing a bird sanctuary. We have also talked about putting in a dog park, a walking trail, and a playground.
