Butler County Gardens get a fresh tilling
BUTLER TWP — Volunteers filled up their gas tanks, revved up their motors and hit the streets early Saturday morning, May 10, to convene outside the Butler County Emergency Services building by about 8 a.m.
Just a few hours from then, the land making up the Butler County Gardens would be plowed and tilled in preparation for incoming gardeners looking for a spot to plant for the summer.
Jim McGrady, president of the Western Pennsylvania Garden Tractor Association, said many of its members anticipate this volunteer opportunity each year, because it’s a job that consistently needs to be done prior to every summer.
“There’s not many farmers who plow anymore; a lot of land is non-tilled,” McGrady said. “For the people who like to mess around with tractors, this is a nice chance to do it.”
About a dozen members of the association brought their tractors to the fields Saturday morning, for a volunteer opportunity that McGrady said wasn’t necessarily a club-sponsored function. He said many members of the club, himself included, relish the chance to take their engines out to do what they were made for: till land for gardening.
Jennifer McIntire, administrative support assistant for Penn State Extension in Butler County, said that while many of the 54 garden plots that make up the county gardens are already taken, there are still about 10 spots left up for the claim. It is free to claim a garden plot — many individuals as well as community organizations like 4-H, scouts and Butler County Community College programs, typically claim a spot each year, McIntire said. Everyone who claims a spot just needs their own plants and supplies to keep up the land, and the plots are claimed on a first-come, first-served basis, and the gardens are open until Oct. 30.
“We’ll go and corner it all out and put flags down and every gardener is assigned a number,” McIntire said, after counting up the remaining available plots. “We try to give gardeners as long as we possibly can before they have to leave.”
The gardens can be used to grow pretty much anything. McIntire and Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer said they have seen everything from produce like pumpkins and zucchini to herbs and flowers sprouting from the plots.
It’s not just plants that grow from the county gardens — it’s the gardening community, too. On weekends in the summer, several people with plots may be out at the same time, and McIntire said she has seen people learn from one another, as evidenced by the gardens’ improved look over the course of one season.
“It’s great to see these organizations do gardening together,” McIntire said. “When you’re out here, you’re not really gardening alone.”
Butler County has also supported the growth of the gardens. Geyer said the county installed a 500-gallon Water Buffalo tank at the gardens last year, which helped the gardens stay moist during what would be a particularly dry summer.
“Each year we try to improve; what can we do to make it better?” Geyer said.
Geyer said a big change in the tilling of the gardens happened around eight or nine years ago, when the county went from using Clydesdale horses to till the land to tractors. Since around 2016, members of the Western Pennsylvania Garden Tractor Association have been the ones tending to the county gardens each spring, and McGrady said they are always happy to do it.
“You get a rhythm going to it,” McGrady said of the plowing and tilling process.
To rent a lot at the Butler County Community Gardens, which are located at on McCune Drive, email McIntire at jzm1159@psu.edu, or call 724-287-4761 ext. 1.
