Building Community in the Garden, Organically

by Max Shelgren, Programs & Community Garden Manager
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REGISTER HERE FOR A 2026 COMMUNITY GARDEN BED

​Last March, I was hired by Canticle Farm to build a Community Garden. Having previously
served in the farm’s fields and high tunnels for several seasons, I felt confident about the idea of building a garden. To build a community, though, that I have never done. ‘Where do I begin?!’  I asked myself.

Today, ten months later, the answer to the question of how to build a community has become clear to me.  Here is my story.

I began by asking my grandsons to help me mark off a 100-foot by 50-foot garden space in the field beside Canticle Farm’s market building. Then, we rolled out a heavy tarp over that space to suppress years of grass and weed growth. 

​Next...

...St. Bonaventure students arrived and put up a fence around the tarp to keep deer, woodchucks, and rabbits out. That was the day the image of a garden was no longer just in our heads. We could now actually see the image in front of us.
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Two students from Franklinville’s 12-1-1 class selected Canticle Farm for their weekly internship. They planted hundreds of seeds in trays in the greenhouse.  And they helped transplant the seedlings in the fields at Canticle Farm South.  Most exciting, they helped build our first four hugelkultur garden beds in the Community Garden.

​This experiment with hugelkultur beds (i.e. the layering of sticks, leaves, compost, and manure on top of untilled soil) proved to be very successful later. But at first, insects were eating every plant we put in those particular beds. Then, miraculously, dozens of tiny toads appeared and ate any and all pests all summer.  I say, ‘It was St. Francis, himself, who sent the toads.’

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Lots and lots of bees also started coming in to pollinate all the beautiful flowers that were growing in the Community Garden.

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​Olean High School’s 12-1-1 class began visiting every week and helped with all sorts of necessary tasks at both Canticle Farm North and Canticle Farm South. As you can see here in the Community Garden, every flower and plant that these kids touched grew beautifully.

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​Adult residents from Intandem showed up. They helped many times throughout the season planting and cultivating marigolds, and later winterizing beds.

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Alex, a direct support professional from Intandem, brought his excavator from his farm and dug holes around the Community Garden.  Our St. Bonaventure University intern, Patrick, helped us plant thirty-nine fruit trees in those holes.

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​Patrick also built three sets of compost bins for us. Intandem Solutions donated the wood pallets for those bins. We placed them all around the Community Garden.

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From the Cattaraugus County Summer Youth Employment Program, we hired three local high school students to work 8-10 hours per week with us, for eight weeks. Among many garden- and farm-related skills, the boys learned how to add soil amendments to beds with broadforks, design and make garden pathways with cardboard and wood chips, and install landscape fabric.

Kudos to these young men who showed up for work on time every single day, focused intently on getting their work done every single hour, and fully accepted my invitation to put their phones away and practice socializing. And thank you to their parents who supported this programming 100%.

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During harvest season, Rise Academy began participating each week. While harvesting potatoes at Canticle Farm South, this young man said, “I want to be one with the potatoes.”

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Those Rise Academy kids thoroughly enjoyed every task I asked them to do.

Students from University of Pittsburgh at Bradford also participated twice this year. They helped us dig and build a leach bed beside the greenhouse at Canticle Farm South. We use the gravel to catch drainage from the hundreds of seed trays we washed all summer after transplanting.

Especially shocking was the amount of work that the young kids, even the kindergarteners, from Southern Tier Catholic School got done when they visited the farm. In the spring, they cleared every single winter plant out of high tunnel #5. And in the fall, they hauled mulch in buckets, and covered all of our asparagus plants. Further, they cleared an entire 200-foot bed of summer cabbage plants out in the field.

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​To reiterate, ‘shocking’ is the right word to use here! Those little guys and gals from Southern Tier Catholic School were incredible.

Also incredible were our German-speaking helpers from Switzerland. They helped us harvest and stack garlic. Hundreds of garlic. It took us two full mornings to get that job done. Nathan and Taylor, two of Canticle’s full-time staff, appreciated the help. And I appreciated that my son and granddaughters came such a long way to visit!

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Finally, one Sunday in late fall, we cleaned out the barn area behind the market and had three different local bands set up in there and play. Music played, audience members lounged in the grass and in their summer folding chairs. Kids played kickball and hula hoops in the field. And newcomers toured the Community Garden—for the first time.

I share this list of people and goings-on—and the list is not even exhaustive—to point out that something creative, alive, and organic is taking place at Canticle Farm right now. As the builder of the new Canticle Farm Community Garden, I made zero phone calls and sent minimal emails and texts these past ten months inviting people in.  

Rather, we rolled out the heavy tarp, word of mouth began to spread, and the people contacted me. We planted the seeds, the flowers grew, and the toads and bees showed up.  

And I am excited to tell that every one of the teachers and caregivers of the students and residents I show here have enthusiastically committed to continue building community with Canticle Farm through 2026. Also exciting, Canticle Farm will be hosting Cornell Extension’s Master Gardener program in the spring. Note that Master Gardener students will have full access to the community garden. More later on these developments!

Community Garden Membership
As we continue to dig around in the creative, living, organic soil of community-building at
Canticle Farm in 2026, we invite you to join us now. Become a member of the community
garden, claim a garden bed, or gift a bed to a friend—for Christmas—or even become a Community Garden Committee member. In the garden through 2026, children will be planting and dancing, everyone will be learning and discovering, and music will be playing.

​Peace & All Good, Max

REGISTER HERE FOR A 2026 community garden bed