On a recent summer morning at Stramski’s Park, the ElderAct Garden was bursting with cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, potatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, green beans, onions and eggplant.
For about 11 years, Chicky Curtis, 85, has been making sure the garden keeps producing — coming almost every day to weed, water, plant, harvest and deliver fresh vegetables to Marblehead’s public housing developments.
Last year, Curtis and her friend Penny Gerow, 72, harvested 75 pounds of fresh produce. They typically spend about 250 hours at the garden each season.
But after years of doing most of the work themselves, Curtis and Gerow say they may be nearing the end of their time tending the garden.
Curtis says this could be the garden’s last year unless more volunteers step forward.
“If anybody young would like to help take it over, that would be great,” Curtis said.
The garden began about 11 years ago, when ElderAct — a senior volunteer group formed in 2014 and sponsored by the Rotary clubs of Swampscott and Marblehead Harbor — took over a gardening project that Rotary had started. The Rotary clubs continue to support the garden, including providing money for fencing last year. The town’s Recreation and Parks Department allows the group to use the land.
The work, however, is substantial.
Curtis starts thinking about the garden in late April or early May. The soil needs to be turned, beds prepared and weeds pulled. And there is no permanent water spigot in the garden. Instead, Curtis runs a hose from the Stramski House, about 150 feet away, to water the plants.
Recently, there’s been another problem: People have been taking the hose and moving it around the park.
The hose is heavy, and when it is left somewhere else, Curtis and Gerow have to haul it back to the garden.
“It was all the way down there,” Curtis said, pointing to the beach.
Curtis said she doesn’t mind people using it as long as they return it to the reel and don’t drive over the connections, which can damage the hose.
The garden has also been the target of other petty theft and vandalism. Someone recently stole two table umbrellas. During the Fourth of July weekend, some jalapeno peppers disappeared.
Curtis reported the stolen umbrella and hose problems to police and asked that officers check the area during their patrols.
The garden is part of a larger ElderAct effort to serve the community. The organization has made hats and scarves for people in need, prepared “ditty bags” for programs that distribute them overseas and supported organizations including the Haven Project in Lynn.
For Curtis and Gerow, the garden is one more way to give back.
They hope the community will help make sure it continues. And for those who simply want to use the hose, there is one simple request: “Just put it back in the reel.”
