Here we grow again: Fort Gordon reopens community garden after three-year hiatus

Construction isn’t all that’s growing at Fort Gordon.

After almost three years of neglect, the fort’s community garden officially reopened Wednesday, in a first-of-its-kind agreement between the U.S. Army and the volunteer agency AmeriCorps.

The once-thriving garden was an indirect casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. With movement and gatherings restricted, the neglected plant beds became choked with weeds. The only plants to outlast the undergrowth were single bushes of rosemary and rue, and a pair of struggling blackberry bushes.

In a brief reopening ceremony, Col. Reginald Evans, the fort’s garrison commander, compared the new garden to the victory gardens that helped unite Americans during World Wars I and II.

“For us today, this victory garden is an opportunity for this installation to share that same sentiment for our community here on Fort Gordon,” he said. “In a world where there’s increasing disconnectedness among us, it allows us to reconnect again as members of a team, as neighbors, as one community.”

The garden, on Provos Avenue behind Freedom Park School, was cleared of weeds and undergrowth by a team from AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, in which volunteers ages 18 to 24 lend their skills and labor toward community improvement projects.

Housing probe: Bipartisan inquiry into military housing at Fort Gordon, other bases launched

Enter the contest: As Fort Gordon becomes Fort Eisenhower, a new logo is needed

NCCC team member Anna Bedal graduated in 2022 from the University of Mary Washington in Virginia.

“I was interested in the nonprofit sector, and this is a good way to gain experience working with nonprofits,” she said. “You can travel basically for free and work with other people your age. Everyone joins for different reasons. You get a lot of practical job skills as well.”

Rosa Criggedorn, a management and program analyst for the fort’s Plans, Analysis and Integration Office, participated in AmeriCorps after she graduated high school. Recently, while helping brainstorm ideas to resurrect the garden, she thought of AmeriCorps.

“We've really, really been trying to find different ways to bring this garden back to the people because they kept asking for it,” she said. “I thought this would be perfect for an AmeriCorps team.”

The agreement Criggedorn helped strike with AmeriCorps is believed to be the first such agreement between the volunteer agency and a U.S. Army installation.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Community garden at Fort Gordon reopens after closure during COVID