Osborn Community Garden

History

The Osborn Community Garden, located at 1901 - 8th Street in Lewiston, is part of the Modie Park Conservancy, and is now in it’s third year of production.
Anabel and Ralph Osborn owned the property for many years and developed the fertile land into a small truck garden. They sold the produce at the property itself and at farmers’ markets. The Osborn produce was well known for being extremely flavorful and fresh and favorites included table grapes, figs and heirloom tomatoes.
After Ralph passed away, Anabel maintained the property on her own continuing the “fresh-from-the-garden” tradition. Neighbor Barb and Garry Bush helped Anabel in her older years with various tasks around the Osborn property. Barb learned directly from Anabel many of her tried and true methods of propagating, planting and harvesting the crops.
When Anabel moved from her home to a care center, her family members gave the Modie Conservancy volunteers (including the Bushes) permission to carry on the tradition of providing fresh produce to the community by establishing a community garden – something that had been in Ralph’s plans years before.
Upon Anabel’s death in 2007 the property passed to the City of Lewiston as part of the Modie Nature Conservancy – a greenspace open to the public.

Phil Shinn, Anabel Osborn and Barb Bush

Today

The Osborn Community Garden is completely staffed by volunteers, who are needed to provide a number of valuable services, from planting, watering and and weeding, to harvesting and taking the bounty to donation sites. Most of the area is dedicated to the Community Garden Project with all produce donated to area food banks and senior nutrition programs. The garden is also available for the Grow-Your-Own Row Project., and is available to community members (limited number of rows are available) wanting to grow vegetables and fruits for their own households, but any excess goes to the programs mentioned above.

	The Community Garden hosts an annual harvest party where all the volunteers come and eat of the bounty of the garden, and children from the community come and pick out their very own pumpkin! If you are interested in learning more about volunteering in the Community Garden, call Barb or Adrienne at 208-746-7787, or Email Us!

The Future

In the very near future, we hope to enjoy a fully-integrated Community Garden system including garden plots both dedicated to the donation cycle and garden plots for individual families.
We are striving to construct a fully-functioning and state-of-the art greenhouse that will enable us to propagate plants that are healthy, well-suited to our climate and bursting with the flavor of the sun. Specialties will include figs, grapes, organic heirloom tomatoes, basil, asparagus beans, cantaloupe, blueberries, squash and pumpkins, and serrano peppers.
Eventually, a sales room will be open to the public, and will sell seedlings from the greenhouse and gadgets for the home gardener. It will also sell specialty food items, such as the famous Bushwoman Pesto, made from Osborn Community Garden products. The library inside the Museum (Anabel's home) will be open to the public and full of appropriate materials concerning local growing information and the flora and fauna of the region.
Anabel's house, located at the Community Garden, boasts the perfect spot for an outdoor tea room for guests who would like to enjoy a gentle cup of tea along with the gentle breeze emanating through the canopy of greenery. Home-made scones will be available made with the fresh blueberries and figs grown on the premises.
The Community Garden will continue to supply the local food banks and Senior Nutrition Program with all the fresh produce and fruit they require to provide fresh, organic food to our needy families and senior citizens.
We would like to extend an invitation for you to become a part of the life and vision of the Osborn Community Garden! Call Barb or Adrienne at 208-746-7787, or Email Us!