The Bridges Road Community Garden project opened to the public July 12 in Williamstown under the global nonprofit Herbalists Without Borders. The produce and herbs will be donated and local herbalists will use the plants to teach about plants' medicinal uses.

WILLIAMSTOWN — Carrie Greene toyed with how to use the quarter-acre property in front of her family house on Bridges Road for years.

When she floated the idea of a community garden that donates to the food insecure, local herbalists and farmers were all in. Less than a year later, northern wild raisins are blooming, tomatillos are ripening and cherry, persimmon and hazelnut trees are beginning to sprout.

The Bridges Road Community Garden opened Sunday after about 10 months of work by local volunteers, farmers and herbalists. Carrie Greene donated her property for the project, which will operate under the global nonprofit, Herbalists Without Borders.

After nearly 10 months of planning and building, the Bridges Road Community Garden opened Sunday at 229 Bridges Road. Operating under the global nonprofit Herbalists Without Borders, the locally volunteer-run garden aims to provide fresh produce to food-insecure residents while offering herbalism education.

Maya Kenner, from Adams, picks St. John's wort at the Bridges Road Community Garden in Williamstown. The garden opened Sunday to the public and will offer plant and herb education.

Greene said the garden is open to different ways of distributing the produce and is in talks with nearby Community Bible Church’s food pantry, which serves about 100 people monthly. The goal is not to compete with farmers selling produce, but to provide for people who maybe can’t get to a farmer’s market or don’t have it in the budget to buy flowers.

“We don’t want to compete, we want to help fill the gap,” she said.

Discussions and project planning for the garden began last fall. A handful of volunteers, led by farmer Cameron Hastie-Etchison and herbalist Rebecca Guanzon, started designing the garden last fall and spent the winter preparing the soil.

Carrie Greene, third from left, donated her Bridges Road property to the new Bridges Road Community Garden project, that opened to the public July 12. The produce and herbs will be donated and local herbalists will use the plants to teach about medicinal uses.

“We had a few meetings over the winter, and then all of a sudden, we're putting lime over the snow to correct acidity,” said Greene.

Greene has provided most of the initial funding, along with water and electricity, while some volunteers donated troves of tools, equipment and supplies.

Hastie-Etchison, who for about a decade worked at nearby Caretaker Farm and designed the garden layout, heard about the project from Guanzon, who is also co-owner of Wild Soul River.

Barbara Ziel, left, and Cameron Hastie-Etchison, talk about where to put a future gazebo in the Bridges Road Community Garden that opened July 12. Ziel volunteers at the garden and co-coordinator Hastie-Etchison helped design it.

When designing the layout, Hastie-Etchison and the group wanted to include as much diversity as possible. The lines of plantings include shrubs, fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and larger trees.

“I feel like sometimes you start things and there's ideas ... but like this has been a group that has the ideas and then is like ‘Okay, next steps, boom, boom, boom,’” she said. “It's pretty impressive that we only started talking about this in October.”

The "3 Sisters" garden bed at the Bridges Road Community Garden contains beans, corn and squash. The garden opened July 12 at 229 Bridges Road in Williamstown, after property owner Carrie Greene donated her property for the cause to a group of volunteers.

The garden will be able to accept donations under the global nonprofit Herbalists Without Borders, which advocates for holistic, affordable and plant-based healthcare access to underserved communities.

“They believe in access and that herbalism is the medicine of the people,” said Guanzon.

Guanzon has a garden with the organization on the side of Wild Soul River and connected the group. She said the organization promotes community gardens, pop-up herbalism clinics and affordable access to herbal medicine.

While volunteer and farmer Jessi McFarland said it will take a few years to see bigger production from some of the plants like the fruit trees, the group also hopes to teach workshops and share knowledge about the herbs they grow and how they can be used.

The Meadowsweet plant naturally contains the compounds that are the basis for Aspirin. Williamstown herbalists Bjorn Adkins and Rebecca Guanzon led a workshop about the medicinal herb at the July 12 opening of the Bridges Road Community Garden.

During the opening, Guanzon and Bjorn Adkins led a workshop on medicinal herbs in the garden, St.-John's wort and meadowsweet, before helping attendees make an herbal ointment.

Bjorn Adkins taught a group of locals about the Meadowsweet plant and its medicinal properties at the opening of the Bridges Road Community Garden July 12.

Tatiana Lakalo subscribes to Wild Soul River’s Patreon, saw a post about the opening, and drove up from Springfield with her husband, Adam Weber.

“I love the idea and how it will benefit the community,” Weber said. “But as far as the minimalist side of it, it just shows you that anyone can do it.”

Guanzon thanked the people who dedicated time to the project and Greene for her generosity in donating the space.

Tatiana Lakalo, right, drove up from Springfield to join in the Bridges Road Community Garden opening with husband Adam Weber, left. The duo made ointment from St. John's wort that has pain-relieving properties, said garden coordinator Rebecca Guanzon.

“It makes me really happy,” she said. “It’s really cool people working in the dirt together, sharing resources.”

Greene said this is just the start. Next, the group hopes to add accessible beds on the side of the garden and install a gazebo that doubles as a squash trellis.

“This is what we wanted to accomplish in the first year, and there's room to grow,” she said.