PITTSFIELD — A year into his experiment, Ricardo Reeves has expanded his community garden, adding jalapeños, collard greens and marigolds. Yet its greatest growth can't be measured in produce — it's the community that has flourished alongside it.

"Since we put this garden together, people have been loving each other, talking to each other, exchanging numbers," said Linda Dagostino, another early contributor to the project. "It's been wonderful."

In its second year, Ricardo Reeves’ Love's Garden, a community garden in front of his apartment building at 279 Onota St., has expanded in size and community support.

Love's Garden, at 279 Onota St., began last summer outside Reeves' apartment building in the former Bartlett Elementary School. This year, he doubled its footprint, planting more vegetables and flowers — and creating even more opportunities for neighbors to gather.

Livia Hess, 6, gets a better look at some of the plants inside Love's Garden, a community garden in front of the apartment building at 279 Onota St., planted and cared for by resident Ricardo Reeves.

"We got to demonstrate love," Reeves said. "We give it with the lips, but it's nothing like demonstrating love. Sometimes people just need to be listened to, sometimes they just need a hug."

Community members gather with Ricardo Reeves, center left, for an official ribbon cutting of Reeves’ Love’s Garden, a community garden he began outside of his apartment building in Pittsfield.

Last Friday in front of his apartment complex — which is in the former Bartlett Elementary School — Reeves held a ribbon-cutting potluck for Love's Garden, packing a cooler with drinks and bringing chairs for neighbors to sit in. The attendees were a mix of residents, garden volunteers and neighbors, and three dogs, too.

Charlotte Hess, 10, walks through Love’s Garden outside of 279 Onota St.

Residents of the apartment building marveled at the new community he had fostered — neighbors eagerly stepped up to manage the garden in Reeves' absence and the dogs took the treats Reeves ran back to his apartment to get. If you were there, the first person to say hello and the last to say goodbye would be Reeves.

"The whole premise of this thing is love," he said.

Ricardo Reeves chats with neighbors and friends at a community gathering and ribbon cutting for Love’s Garden. Reeves started the garden last year as a way to show love and help his community.

Love is what helped drive Reeves to make the garden happen, as he had no idea how or where to start. So, Reeves started digging, and, as he put in the work, other people joined.

Cindy Sanford doesn't live in Reeves' apartment building, but she walks past it, and, during those walks, she began talking to Reeves.

"[Reeves] had to go out of town for a week, and he said, 'Would you mind watching over the garden and watering it,'" Sanford said. "So I did. I got into it knee-deep."

Reeves said he appreciates neighbors pitching in, but he isn't tending the garden expecting anything in return. He understands that "love is a risk."

In its second year, Ricardo Reeves’ Love's Garden, a community garden in front of his apartment building at 279 Onota St., has expanded in size and community support.

This year's garden has expanded to cover the grass between the apartment building's two entrance sidewalks, making the garden 32-by-15 feet. Squash, cucumbers, basil and tomatoes were some of the returning plants, but Reeves has learned from his last year of gardening, planting marigolds to ward off bugs.

The garden is a community one, with anyone able to respectfully take what they need, Reeves said. He also harvests from the garden, using some of the abundant basil from last year's crop to make fresh pesto.

Reeves is not done with expanding what Love's Garden grows and how it interacts with the community.

"I would love to try to create a model," he said, "It'll teach people that they can do it, and that hard work is really good work."

Kids wrote thank you messages outside of Love’s Garden community garden at 279 Onota St. in Pittsfield.

For people looking to make an impact on their community, accomplish a personal goal or just move forward, Reeves had some advice:

"If you get a vision and you want to do something just put one foot forward," Reeves said. "Don't wait for somebody else to tell you or wait for some resources to come from somebody else. ... Go forward with it."

A tomato starts to grow inside Love's Garden, a community garden in front of the apartment building at 279 Onota St., planted and cared for by resident Ricardo Reeves.