4-H

Judy Curran enjoys seeing people having fun outdoors.

So, when the chance came her way to get library patrons — young and old, digging in the dirt — she seized the opportunity to put her passion for gardening into motion.

“I get so much peace and joy from it,” said Curran, the youth services provider at the New River Branch Library in Zephyrhills. “It’s my hobby, and I want to share that,” she said.

A Pasco County work policy made it possible.

A few years ago, employees were encouraged to choose a project that excited them. They could then devote 10 percent of their work hours to making it happen.

This “10 percent initiative” of the county was Curran’s signal to step forward and organize a community garden at the New River branch. It is the only community garden in Pasco sponsored by a library.

Curran put a flier on the bulletin board and got the kind of feedback she needed.

Nearly a year ago, the first sprouts in the garden were small, and so were her first volunteers.

Daisy Scouts planted herbs in a handful of rain barrels that were cut into two halves. The barrels – painted by the Scouts – flank the parking lot and walkway leading to the library’s entrance.

“To me that adds charm,” Curran said. “It’s obvious kids painted these barrels.”

Over time, these first plantings gave way to dwarf fire bushes that now drop their roots into the soil of the rain barrels, and attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

And the garden grew again, but this time as a memorial to a friend of the library – Samuel Smith. The teenager died in 2011. He came to the library nearly every day after school.

“He was a volunteer and helped with troubled kids,” Curran said.  “It was heartbreaking when that happened.”

One weekend, his friends planted a flowering garden that blooms with lantana, firecracker bushes, ginger plants and 4 o’ clocks.

Nearby, community gardeners tend raised beds filled with pepper squash, oregano, sorghum and carrots, and a cluster of marigolds. A Japanese plum tree and a peach tree stand tall as stand-alones planted inside more half-size rain barrels.

About a dozen people tend these garden beds. There are individuals, a mother and daughter, and friends.

There is no fee, and Curran hopes to enlist more gardeners.

“I want it to be all inclusive,” she said. “I want families to come and 4-H gardeners. I don’t want anyone to think ‘Oh, I can’t do that’.”

Three plastic swimming pools filled with dirt, rest next to the raised beds, ready for children to try out their green thumbs.

“I have a lot of seeds,” Curran said. “They can come in and plant seeds, and see what happens.”

Curran said books and gardening go together naturally.

“It’s about sharing information,” she said.

Seeds and plants also are shared at plant exchanges.

At the rear of the library, two cisterns catch rainwater.

“That was all the water we used during the dry season,” she said. “We’re trying to go as natural as possible.”

In the future, a compost tumbler is on the wish list.

A mound of mulch is piled next to the garden beds.

A small grant helped seed the garden, and pay for lumber. County employees built the raised beds, including one high enough for disabled gardeners to use. Master gardeners and the Pasco County Cooperative Extension provide expertise and teach classes at the library.

“It’s a very cooperative effort between the library, the county’s cooperative extension, master gardeners and the facilities department,” Curran said.

Curran herself is not a master gardener, but gardening is a tradition in her family. She worked side by side in gardens with her father and grandfather.

“I want people to see that they can grow their own food,” she said. “Everywhere I’ve lived, I’ve always had a vegetable garden. There’s a lot you can grow in small spaces.”

The library hosts community garden meetings every third Thursday of the month. The next meeting is Oct. 15 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call New River at (813) 788-6375, or email Curran at .

Published October 14, 2015