Originally founded in 2012 by Terry Fredrich, Mary Crabtree, and Sherry Chen, the community garden has continued to grow in size and number of volunteers.
The Oasis consists of a pollinator garden, an herb garden, a chicken area and a poly house garden. New additions to the site include a summer kitchen and the children’s garden.
The July 27 event is expected to host over 700 people, up from the 500 the event had in the past, and therefore will have a larger volunteer grilling team of 12 to 15 people, Fredrich said.
The volunteers will be grilling a variety of vegetables from the garden for spectators to sample as they tour the garden. About 700 ears of corn on the cob will be prepped as gardeners will donate different types of organic vegetables for people to eat and take home.
Fredrich said there will be two or three pizza ovens where people can also make vegetarian pizza.
“We want people to see the garden, and taste vegetables that are fixed in many different ways,” Fredrich said. “... The grillers do their own creative form of whatever vegetable they want to feature.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
New to the grilling event this year will be the incorporation of two artists, who are also gardeners, who will do paintings.
Four school teachers helped to organize the children’s garden. There will be activities for children to do in cooperation with the Springfield Museum of Art, and more children’s activities will take place in the garden cottage with 20 more raised garden beds.
Fredrich says there will be a volunteer-led garden tour for people that want a tour. For those who want to take a self-tour, there will be interpretive signs throughout the garden.
“We have so many people that come out and say I have no idea this garden is here or this is available,” he says. “Every bit of this garden is to serve the public and our community.”
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