River and Roots Community Garden was founded in 2011 by two local families determined to bring community gardening to downtown in order to promote, create, and sustain community gardening in downtown Riverhead, NY. Our mission continues today to encourage member involvement in the betterment of the community while growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and sharing the joys of gardening through a variety of ways. Situated between Main Street and the Peconic River walkway, this area’s foot traffic enables our garden to easily reach out and be accessible to the local community.
The ReWild project has added a new dimension to the garden and will prove to be another opportunity for us to engage with the greater community by exposing people to benefits of native pollinator gardens and introducing them to native plants. Working with our garden members and 4 Master Gardeners, the team has been excited to reestablish and transform 2 areas of our garden, the Main Street facing perimeter garden and our Peconic River facing playground garden, to true native pollinator gardens.
These native pollinator garden areas are designed to have 4 season color and will prove to be a great attraction and interest to visitors. With signage, passers-by will be able to learn more about native pollinators as well as see more of the whole community garden. Our garden members consider this to be a new and valuable opportunity to draw beneficial pollinators to our community vegetable garden and embrace further opportunities to engage with our community.
Each year a diverse cross section of families, individuals, and community support groups rent one of our 34 raised garden beds for the purpose of growing vegetables, fruits, and annual flowers. Additionally, there are 5 communal beds providing a variety of herbs as well as asparagus and rhubarb for all to share. We encourage our members to participate in weekly and seasonal garden work parties, as well as a few potluck picnics, to bring our members together where they can share gardening experiences and tips.
While blackberries and raspberries on the perimeter have been available to the wider Riverhead community to pick for many years, our community's needs are ever changing. In response, the 2023 garden plan included utilizing the perimeter fence garden space to grow more vegetables accompanied with signage to encourage the community harvest. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, cucumbers and peas were added to the raspberries. Two baskets were attached to the fence to hold vegetables grown in 2 designated pantry beds. Everyone is welcome to harvest from these perimeter gardens.
In 2024 the Friends of the Garden volunteer gardening group was started. On the first Saturday morning of the month, during the season, anyone who wants to work in the garden or learn more about gardening, but does not necessarily want to have a garden bed of their own can help with garden chores. High school students also participate to fulfill community services requirements. Garden members provide guidance and share garden tips during these sessions. So far, our Friends include local Riverhead residents as well as a few from other local towns.
Anyone wishing to tour the garden can contact us at our website www.riverandroots.org.
