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Efforts bring raised garden beds to Betts Park

A Scout is helping Master Gardeners provide food for those who need it.

Thanks to the efforts of Gabriel Wennberg, there are two raised garden beds near the tennis courts at Betts Park waiting to be planted full of leafy greens, tomatoes, or whatever the Penn State Master Gardeners think should be grown there.

In April, Wennberg, of Troop 8 of First Presbyterian Church of Warren, approached the City of Warren to see if there anyone had any needs that might align with an Eagle Project. "They said the Master Gardeners were looking to have some elevated garden beds built,"

Wennberg said.That sounded good to him.

Even better, the produce would go to charitable entities. "The harvested plants -- whatever gets grown in them -- is donated to local food banks and soup kitchens," he said.

"I got into contact with my uncle, Jim Buczkowski, who is an engineer," Wennberg said. "He spent 10 hours, maybe more, drawing up diagrams for this."

The diagrams for two 36-inch tall by 6-feet by 10-feet boxes were shown to city personnel, Master Gardeners, and Scout leaders.

Each group approved the design. "We got all the signatures in a day," Wennberg said.

The project met with a surprise and went through the approval stage again.

The initial design for 36-inch tall beds were scrapped when a man in a wheelchair happened to pass by the construction.

Wennberg decided to bring the height down in order to make the beds handicapped accessible.

The new proposal of 24-inch high beds was quickly approved and construction continued.

Larch wood -- with an expected life span of up to 70 years -- was provided by Camp Ranger Michael Crone Sr. The screws, washers, and other fasteners were provided by Lowe's and Ace Hardware. A generator -- on one of the construction days, a family gathering was going on in the pavilion where the workers typically plugged in their equipment -- was provided to the effort by Howe's True Value.

Over the course of three weeks, labor was provided by Wennberg, fellow Scouts, and parents -- more than 20 people in all.

"We started construction on the first Saturday in August," he said.

August was a rainy month, but "we always got out in the nick of time," Wennberg said.

Once the beds were constructed, the wood was lined with 6 mil plastic to help prevent deterioration. Wennberg said there is a layer of coarse stone, two to three inches deep, at the bottom on the beds. On top of that is compost from the city -- about four cubic yards in each of the beds.

This late in the season, Master Gardener Kris Whitaker said the group will only plant leafy greens - spinach and kale. There will be a full planting in the spring. The produce is there for the taking -- if a passerby likes the look of a tomato, they are encouraged to take one. In general, the produce will go to charitable entities.

The Master Gardeners are very pleased with Wennberg's work. "We think it's great," Whitaker said.

And, that they are handicapped accessible "was an unexpected bonus," she said.

Although the project went through some initial delays that pushed it back far enough that the Master Gardeners will be limited in their choices for plantings this year, the work went quickly once it began.

"I expected it to take longer," Wennberg said. "The rate at which my volunteers worked was amazing. I couldn't have done this without their help."

"It is everything that I wanted it to turn out to be," he said. "They turned out amazing."