Good Ground Heritage Garden
Since its founding in 2019, the Good Ground Heritage Garden at St. Joseph Villa has more than lived up to its name. Over the last 5 seasons of growing and giving, ECI Volunteers have harvested and donated thousands of pounds of fresh, healthy organic produce, including potatoes, onions, greens, snap peas, squash, strawberries, watermelon and much more! Most of what we grow is donated to the St. Rosalie’s Food Pantry in Hampton Bays to help those in need, while a small portion is used in our Organic Farm-to-Table Organic Dinners.
Our garden has also served as a gathering place around which an active community of gardeners has formed. Our group includes novices and experts, who come together weekly, from April through October, to work the soil and learn hands-on organic gardening skills. Together we plant, weed, cultivate, harvest, and preserve produce, with the goal of empowering members of the community with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to produce their own homegrown organic vegetables.
In 2023, ECI Volunteers harvested and donated over 1,400 lbs. of fresh, healthy organic produce!
Surrounded by an 8’ deer fence, the Good Ground Heritage Garden space is currently 60’ x 120’, and contains 14 raised beds made by our volunteer members. Adjacent to the main heritage garden are the Eco-Shack, our Greenhouse, our Pollinator Project (which includes bee hives, a native pollinator garden, and Monarch Waystation), and our Community Composting Program composting site.
locally grown Food for the community
The delicious, vitamin-rich, fresh herbs and vegetables harvested from the Good Ground Heritage Garden are donated to local food pantries in Hampton Bays. Organic, heirloom variety seeds are collected from the garden, processed, and made available to the public for free through the Good Ground Seed Library, which is hosted at the. Hampton Bays Public Library.
The Good Ground Heritage Garden provides an opportunity for folks to learn how to grow food, and to also give back to the community by donating fresh, organic, locally grown produce to those in need.
Community service hours are available! Please contact ECI if you are interested, we’d love to see you in the garden!
Come join us as a garden volunteer! You can also help by donating funds to help pay for ongoing efforts to upgrade and expand our facilities. For more information, please contact info@eciny.org.