Bock Community Garden at Pheasant Branch Conservancy

Earlier this year, I found some goats at the Pheasant Branch Conservancy.  They've been gone for over a month, and all the leaves they ate came back even lusher than before.  Although I miss the goats, last week I found something else exciting at Pheasant Branch - a very special community garden.

In the 1970s, the Middleton - Cross Plains School District bought 19 acres of land adjacent to what is now the Pheasant Branch Conservancy.  They put the land up for sale in 2002 after choosing to build a school elsewhere.  Rather than let the land go to developers who planned a high-density use that would have been detrimental to the Conservancy, the Friends of Pheasant Branch successfully raised the $3 million asking price, bought the land, and transferred title to the city of Middleton in 2006. 

As part of the federal government's Community Forest Program, the land now protects habitat and water quality, as well as providing environmental and cultural education.  Named for the first major individual contributor, the John C. Bock Community Forest is located along Highland Way, near Century Avenue.  As part of its mission to provide education and recreation opportunities, a community garden was built just a few years ago in what is one of Middleton's lowest income areas.

Garden plots are issued with the stipulation that the recipient use a portion of their garden space to grow native plants for Bock Forest.  

Plants given back to Bock Forest can be trees, shrubs, grasses, forbs, or other plants; they could either be grown for seeds or transplanting.

I think that's what makes this community garden so beautiful - the range of plants.

The maintenance and plant hygiene is meticulous.

Approaching the garden, you see it is protected from deer by a beautiful, tall, black chain-link fence, with gates on mulitple sides.  It doesn't look imposing, it looks welcoming.  You can see a bit of the fence here.

This is another beautiful example of what makes this community garden special - not just the history and philosophy behind it, but the gorgeous infrastructure.

Wouldn't this be an incentive to keep your plot well-tended?  You can get a glimpse of the paths here, well-mulched with chips made from wood harvested from the Conservancy.  Just on the other side of the tools are some demonstration gardens.

"Waste" wood is used for signs, posts, and frames.

Each plot seems to have something different.

And each has its own character.

It's enough to make your head spin.