Tim Gonsalves uses his tractor to till the soil at Emerald House Community Garden.

Flowers and other pollinator plants at the Emerald House Community Garden help attract the endangered monarch butterfly.

Tim Gonsalves uses his tractor to till the soil at Emerald House Community Garden.

Flowers and other pollinator plants at the Emerald House Community Garden help attract the endangered monarch butterfly.

In response to high demand for plots and positive feedback from gardeners, Falmouth’s community gardens will soon expand.

At the Emerald House property off Davisville Road—one of two community gardens in town—there are 34 plots measuring 10 by 10 feet. By mid-May, there will be 26 more 10x10 plots, as well as nine 10x20-foot plots, Emerald House Community Garden committee member Pamela Wolfe-Schumacher said.

Last spring, the select board gave the Emerald House Community Garden committee permission to expand. Since then, the department of public works has cleared the land, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said.

In November the community garden hired Tim Gonsalves to till the land, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said. Mr. Gonsalves’s family has been tilling Falmouth farmland for generations, she said.

“Both his father and grandfather tilled most, if not all, of the strawberry fields that once lined Davisville Road back in the early to mid-1900s,” Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher wrote in an email.

The next step for the garden is to move the fence so that the garden’s perimeter includes the new plots. Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said the work will be done with the help of volunteers.

There are 20 people on the waitlist for these soon-to-be plots. Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said gardeners who volunteer to help move the fence and prepare the new plots will be given priority.

Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said there will also be an increase in communal areas in the garden, including a plot dedicated to pollinator plants like milkweed. This will help increase biodiversity and attract more monarch butterflies, she said.

Three Emerald House community gardeners gave up their plots this coming season in anticipation of a new community garden at Peterson Farm off Woods Hole Road, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said. Those gardeners live in Woods Hole, which is much closer to Peterson Farm than the Emerald House, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said.

Dick Pooley, who is on the committee for the community garden at Andrews Farm, said he has been working with town marine and environmental services technician Mark Kasprzyk to start a community garden at Peterson Farm. They have selected land near the old farmhouse, Mr. Pooley said. The area is relatively small, with room for only 25 plots, he said.

The plots are partially tree-covered, Mr. Pooley said, noting he wants to have some of those trees removed, so that all 25 plots can have full sun.

However, the conservation commission is hesitant to allow the trees to be cut down, he said, and the town has not approved the community garden.

In the meantime, Mr. Kasprzyk has been coordinating with the department of public works to clear invasive species and littered debris from around the old farmhouse site.

Mr. Kasprzyk said the conservation commission wants to maintain the forested area around the potential plots, but that some trees could likely be negotiated for felling.

On Thursday morning, January 5 , Mr. Kasprzyk and Mr. Pooley went to the farm to examine the site.

“Dick is measuring it right now as we speak,” Mr. Kasprzyk said over the phone.

The targeted area slopes down as it nears the road, which also limits plot layout; but it is one of the few available sites that would not encroach on the sheep pastures.

“I think it will happen, it’s just [a matter of] making sure we have it in an area that is going to work,” Mr. Kasprzyk said.

Mr. Pooley also said he has been talking to Farming Falmouth, the community gardens’ parent organization, about expanding the Andrews Farm community garden footprint. Mr. Pooley said the demand for plots this year has been so high that he did not even have to advertise that the plots were available.

“We’re going to have a full house,” he said.

Gardeners can email emeraldcommunitygarden@gmail.com to be placed on the Emerald House waitlist. Ten-by-10-foot plots cost $25 per year and 10x20-foot plots cost $50, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said.

Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said gardeners who grow produce often end up offsetting this cost with money saved on buying food.

“It’s amazing what you can grow in a 10-by-10,” she said.

And beginner gardeners need not worry, Ms. Wolfe-Schumacher said, as community gardeners share tips with one another, and Farming Falmouth offers educational talks. The Emerald House Community Garden has a shed with gardening tools that anyone with a plot can use.

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