The Stratford resident, who has lived in the community for three years, inquired about a plot in the town’s community gardens last year, and this spring he was able to plant his greens.
“It’s fun. I love vegetables and I love greens,” he said, adding gardening brings him joy. “Sometimes we meet other plot owners and have friendly talks and share experiences with them.”
Soon, Babazadeh will have more gardeners with whom to share experiences.
A request from Stratford residents for more plots to be added to the town’s community gardens has been granted.
At a town council meeting on Sept. 11, council approved a supplementary capital budget of $12,000 in order to expand the gardens by 30 plots.
The original 36 plots were installed in 2013, and the demand for expansion of the gardens has been “substantial”, said Stratford mayor David Dunphy.
Dunphy said the council originally budgeted approximately $5,000 to expand the gardens, and were hoping for an additional $5,000 to come “from another source that didn’t pan out”, for a total of $10,000.
Upon further inspection of the gardens in the spring, the Department of Recreation, Culture and Events, realized there were rotting boards around some of the existing plots that needed to be replaced with more sustainable materials.
Earlier this month, the department went to council saying it wanted to fix the boards and expand the gardens at the same time, which would cost approximately $17,000 in total.
With this information, council approved an additional $12,000 to the already budgeted $5,000.
The project will be funded in full by the Town of Stratford, something the mayor said is good for the community.
“It’s been a huge success for the town. It sort of fits in with our sustainability goals, it’s given people the opportunity to have a garden that don’t have that opportunity now, and the social aspect is important is well,” he said, adding the repairs and expansion will take place in October or November of this year.
“People can get their plots squared away during the winter and we’ll have the plots all in place once spring rolls around.”
