MARION — Even though the summer growing season is nearing its end, onions and Brussel sprouts are still growing at 113 Front Street in Marion. 

This home, with gardens arranged in neat raised beds, was one of four that was featured on Friday, Sept. 29 during a vegetable garden tour put on by the Friends of the Elizabeth Taber Library and Community Veg Marion.

According to Barbie Burr, who leads Community Veg Marion, the garden tour’s goal was to raise awareness for a community allotment garden in Marion. 

“I have a vision of a public space which is shared by a group of gardeners where individuals take an allotment the way people have a mooring in the harbor,” said Burr. “And around these allotments are the supportive things gardeners need.”

While gardening is often an individual and solitary hobby, Burr said, gardeners who use the community garden allotments would have access to shared resources like compost water, skills and of course extra produce. 

“Group gardening doesn't go well, it's like group cooking. It's an individual sport,” Burr said. “[But] if you're going to raise by seeds, you have more than you need, so you always share. And when you grow zucchini, you always have more than you can eat so you share.”

Already, Community Veg Marion has a small vegetable and herb garden outside the Marion Council on Aging, Burr said.

Many of the plants in the garden were grown from seed with the help of gardeners Chrissy Maier, Brooke Johnson and others. 

According to Maier, who’s surname means “farmer” in old German, she was approached by Burr to provide seedlings for the Council on Aging garden. 

“It was really fun to do,” said Maier. 

Johnson was a docent at the Council on Aging’s garden during Friday’s tour. 

“There was nothing here [before]. We added dirt, straw, seeds … and everything just took off from there,” said Johnson. “The idea is that we want to have allotments for the community so they can have their own vegetable plots. This is just the beginning of it, to show people that this is what we can do and this is what it’ll look like.”

According to Johnson, the herbs and edible plants growing at the Council on Aging are for the organization’s chef to use in the on-site kitchen. “That’s what sparked this whole idea,” she said.

For Burr, she is “just trying to light a candle” in town.

“I see this community garden as a place where people share skills and to some extent share food. It needs to be public in the way the library is public” she said. “It needs to be a place where everybody in Marion feels as though [the garde] is their resource … otherwise it’s too intimidating.”