Our Story
A Journey of Growth…
The Belmont Community Garden was implemented and officially registered as a non-profit in 2014 with the intention to educate the community and our youth about the bounty of our earth and sustainable growing. What better way to repurpose hard-packed land than to build a center of beauty and life. The Community Garden resides on the what use to be the old train depot, adjacent to our glorious railroad tracks. During the initial implementation and movement of the earth, the history of what use to be was coming to the surface. From old horseshoes, to rail road spikes, once again an area teeming with life, was becoming a new form of beautiful life, an area filled with flowers, fruits and vegetables.
For a few years the Garden welcomed the community, providing the opportunity for families, businesses, and organizations to participate in gardening. With nearly 50 raised beds, the Garden became a beacon of beauty and productivity, and provided us opportunity to serve the residents of Holy Angels, Belmont Community Organization selected impoverished families, and our local schools.
For the past many years, the garden has remained dormant, however, with a resurgence of the culinary scene in Belmont with the new farm to table experience at Heirloom Restaurant, which works with local ingredients from Carolina producers, it was time to re-establish the Belmont Community Garden. The Garden has begun to undergo changes to bring it back to its original glory, serving and educating the community.
In 2021, we started with 6 raised beds to “get our roots wet” to ensure we could confidently grow produce. Unfortunately we were limited to how many raised beds we could add to the garden due to the inconsistent water supply. We were depending heavily on rainfall and certainly endured a few dry spells, but good news! We have recently been able to install a water-line with the help of the city and friends of the Garden so that we can ensure a steady supply of water to expand the Garden.
The Garden is an evolving project that will work together with local businesses of Belmont, providing produce and hosting events to help raise money for the garden, local schools to get our youth involved with hands-on learning so that they too can try growing plants at home, and our wonderful community, engaging with individuals and families through gardening.