-
AGG members tending the gardens. Submitted photo -
Dan Groth’s garden known as the “Little Farm.” Submitted photo -
Dan Groth’s garden known as the “Little Farm.” Submitted photo -
Spring time in the garden. Submitted photo -
Dan Groth’s granddaughter, Sophie Groth, enjoying a big harvest of onions.
The Airport Garden Group is pleased to announce that its gardeners have collectively donated over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce during the past 12 months, raised in their gardens on the grounds of the Fernandina Municipal Airport.
Recipients of the fresh produce have included Barnabas Nassau food pantry, Micah’s Place, Gracie’s Kitchen, Salvation Army Hope House, Coalition for the Homeless and several others. In addition, many gardeners share their bounty with countless neighbors and friends.
The Airport Garden Group, AGG, is a community garden that provides fresh vegetables to food insecure families in Florida’s Nassau County on the local airport grounds and has been growing food for more than 25 years.
“It started with a group of factory workers who wanted to grow fresh food for their families. They used discarded pipes from the factory for an irrigation system (they dug the trenches and laid out more than 1000 feet of water lines) and managed to convince the City of Fernandina Beach to let them use an overgrown jungle area next to the municipal airport for their gardens. It was a major effort to clear the area and amend the almost pure sand soil, but now the gardens generate almost every imaginable herb and vegetable, year around,” explains a story written about founder and Master Gardener, Dan Groth.
As a partner with Keep Nassau Beautiful, which promotes a clean and beautiful environment through community events and education, the Airport Garden Group is a collection of 15 individual garden lots ranging in size from 150 to 1400 square feet and cultivated by 22 gardeners.
When describing AGG in a recent update on the group’s activities, Groth said, “We don’t give away our produce because we grow too much, we grow too much so we can give it away.”
