Up on a mountain, hidden from general view at the Sea Ranch, is Posh Squash, a one acre community garden that has existed on leased land since 1975. Knowing that my husband and I love to garden and volunteer, our niece and nephew, took us to see their local community garden.  We walked 15 minutes up the hill, hiked another 15 minutes on dirt paths through the redwoods. Eventually coming to a fence, we read the sign above the gate that stated,  “Visitors: Look, But Pick Not.”

This organic garden consists of row after row of raised beds, each planted with a specific variety of vegetable, herb or flower. All the beds are labeled with handmade wooden signs. There are fruit trees, pumpkins, watermelons, and berries growing outside and around the raised beds. One of the outbuildings contains equipment, supplies and organizational lists, a second is a  hoop house with flats of tomato plants and another a greenhouse set up with plants being propagated  for winter gardening.  There is a large area filled with composting bins and piles of rich looking compost. Residents of the Sea Ranch can bring their kitchen scraps and yard trimmings from home to recycle at the garden. Next to the recycling area is an irrigation section where different gauge irrigation pipe and tubing is hung on pegs and marked according to size. At the top of the garden, a bench under an arbor invites one to meditate in the quietness while looking downhill at the garden. The most impressive image of the garden is the organization of its entirety. I know first hand that it takes a village to organize and maintain a community garden like this one.

The interested owners who live at the Sea Ranch (about one hundred members), contribute a yearly fee, then volunteer to maintain the garden. This allows them the right to harvest the rewards of their labor. A chairman oversees the garden and a steering committee meets every spring to make necessary decisions and changes.

In the fall, the garden is covered in sheep wool, sheered from local flocks, to retard weed growth. In the early spring, the soggy wool,  full of worms,  is collected and the beds are planted anew.  Some plants have not grown successfully in Posh Squash and are no longer planted. What hasn’t worked previously are artichokes, okra, eggplant and corn.

The efficiency of Posh Squash rivals that of any community garden that I have seen or read about. After 37 years, the garden still evolves and it is a masterpiece!