Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Town Clerk Amy Roberts by Community Garden leader Mary Poplin this morning (Jan. 4, 2023) following last night’s Town Board meeting, during which board members were confused about the relationship of the garden and the Community Appearance Tree Board.

Hi Amy,

Thank you for letting me know there was a need for information on the Community Garden. I am happy to clarify some points about the Community Garden. I have attached our original proposal to the Board, found below, which was unanimously approved by the Board. And I have linked to the approval from town minutes, Item V here in the March 2022 meeting minutes: https://mtgileadnc.com/agenda_minutes/2022/2022Mar01_Minutes.pdf

TLDR: We formed the garden and only asked for land and water from the town, and we would do the rest of the care, upkeep, planning, planting, and other tedious tasks as do not normally need to be micromanaged. At no point was the garden formed as part of the appearance board. It was formed to be in line with the 2040 plan and is its own entity.

Let me try to untangle some potentially confusing timelines. “The Gathering Garden: a Mount Gilead Community Garden” group originally formed in January 2022, and we got approval for our space in March 2022. Between that time, there was a community appearance board formed by the board, but we predated that formation by a month. At the first meeting of the appearance board, two members of the garden joined the appearance board as private citizens in order to help advise them as to what we were doing with the garden as a courtesy, myself and Christy Barringer. This was made extremely clear, and there are several people who attended that meeting who can confirm this is the case. Feel free to confirm this with Amy Roberts, Susie Routh, or Myra Poplin who were there in person. I’d like to add, as an aside, that we broke ground and had a garden in a few short months and that is an incredible civic achievement I am proud of that we could not have done without the support of Town Hall and the Board, and all our hard working garden members. I helped put that fence in and built our garden gate with my own hands. And I have built, planted, watered, and weeded all year long with my garden members.

We briefly discussed rolling the appearance board AND the community garden into a nonprofit together at a meeting, but determined it was better for the community garden club to operate as a private club moving towards 501c status. Either way, I made it clear that I could not make decisions for the whole garden group, our members of the garden would have had to vote to join the appearance board as a subcommittee and we voted not to in our own meetings. Again, we are a private group and were formed as such, we have our own private account, our own bylaws, and our own agenda and goals. I made it clear at the end of every single appearance board meeting that we were members as private citizens and not as the community garden club and kept them updated on the garden there as a courtesy, so I can’t understand how there’s any confusion about this unless the confusion is deliberate or maybe some members were not at enough meetings to get a clear picture. I have also made it clear in writing since then.

The garden group, and I personally, have no agenda or vendetta about being on the appearance committee, we just don’t want to continue to be a part of the current appearance committee as it is more volatile than we’d like to be involved with. That’s it. There’s no hidden drama. I personally won’t be in any group where heavy conflict is happening, where members yell and storm, or where continual instigators of heavy conflict are controlling members. That’s not exactly hard to understand, I am sure. I have a great many things on my plate already between fulltime work and parenthood. This isn’t a fight, it’s a boundary. I have attached the resignation and clarification I already sent months ago for your records. At no point has the garden operated under the purview and control of the appearance board and we do not plan to going forward, now or ever. This is a hard boundary that no amount of overreach on the part of an advisory committee is going to change. If we need to make changes to the garden outside the plan we outlined and had approved, we will report to the Town Board and Mayor and only the Town Board and Mayor about it. Town Leaders and Town Hall are in control of the land, not an ever-changing group of members who have not volunteered or supported the garden at any time. And it doesn’t make any kind of sense for that to suddenly change. Once again, the appearance board is a citizen led advisory committee and we are a separate private community garden club, like the Merchants Guild, Gilmont Service Club, Masonic Lodge, or any other local organization. And I want to make it clear, we are not funded by the town at all. That was our part of the original and approved plan.

Right now, we have a Master Gardener, Donna Keesler, as a member of our community garden and I spent most of this past year volunteering with the Montgomery County extension office, attending Master Gardener classes, bought my own books and supplies, and became a Master Gardener to continue to help the garden thrive. I have over 120 volunteer hours of my time and over a thousand dollars of my own personal money sunk into the Gathering Garden, that’s not counting 40 hours of Master Gardener education. Private donations, volunteering, and support has come into the garden from all over the community, but our cash budget remains a privately funded shoestring. We are working on becoming certified with the North Carolina Extension Office and becoming a recognized Montgomery County Community Garden where volunteers from all over MoCo can register volunteer hours that count towards their Master Gardener certification, and in an effort to engage the wider community on best gardening practices and agricultural education. We are really excited about this opportunity to continue to grow the garden in a way that benefits our entire community.

In the Spring, we will plant again, and will continue with the plans to include a kid-led garden with natural play areas and edible or pollinator-friendly native plants. Right now, as we have previously advised the town, the garden is fallow for the winter while the soil recovers from herbicide contamination from compost we bought locally. So far, mushrooms are growing well in the soil, which is a good indicator of soil health and we hope to start providing for the greater community at large when the soil has been tested for everyone’s safety this Spring. We have mulch waiting and ready to go so we can get some green, growing things in ASAP. And we are looking forward to contributing to the food bank and to working with the local elementary school on more plant-based activities.

Hope you had a happy new year and a fun holiday with your families,

Mary Poplin