COMPLETED - Glen Park Community Garden Expansion

When the Community Preservation Committee voted to fund this Glen Park Community Garden expansion, they made a special request for the addition of an arts component. With the support of the Somerville Arts Council, the City released a call for artists in early 2025. It invited local artists to replace a standard metal gate with a piece of art that honors the artistic nature of this city, the spirit of togetherness and growth in our community garden program, and it brings art into the park! Ruchika Madan--a Somerville resident, ceramicist and tile maker, master gardener, and garden product designer--was selected by a jury to design and install this new public artwork. The work will be installed in late October 2025 to permanently improve the character of the garden's adjacent seating area.

A reception will be held on November 1st, 2025, from 11am-12pm to celebrate the final phase of this project. Please join us for some refreshments, to see the work, and to meet the artist. We hope to see you there!

You can find out more about Ruchika Madan on her website: https://www.ruchikamadan.com/

Mayor Ballantyne and OSPCD’s Public Space and Urban Forestry Division invite you to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for the expansion of the Glen Park Community Gardens. We hope you will join us in celebrating the addition of 18 new garden beds for residents in Somerville!

Tuesday April 30^th at 11:30 AM (Rain date: Friday May 3^rd at 11 AM)
5 Palmer Ave, Somerville, MA

The City purchased this property in 2017 with the intention of expanding the existing community garden at Glen Park. After demolition, design, and hiring a contractor, the team worked all winter to complete the project. The new garden area features 18 raised beds with different levels of accessibility (including accessible beds for gardeners in a wheelchair), a new shed, new spigots, and a renovated gathering area outside of the garden. Support and funding come from the Community Preservation Commission with funds from the Community Preservation Act and the Community Development Block Grant Program.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will mark the completion of this project. 18 residents will be able to join this gardening community and we can’t wait to see what they grow!

https://www.somervillema.gov/events/2024/04/30/ribbon-cutting-glen-park-community-garden-expansion

Hello all,

If you pass by the site today, you'll see that construction is well underway. Initial demolition is complete, the ground is prepared for the installation of ADA-accessible asphalt surfaces, new water lines and spigots are in place, and there is a new shed! All the garden beds are being constructed off site and they will be installed when the weather warms. All work in the winter is very weather dependent. At the moment, you'll see very little action. The contractor will take advantage of any break in the cold, but some parts of the process will have to wait until asphalt factories open back up and the ground is no longer frozen. Lots more to come!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave any questions here if you have them.

After going through a careful process, the City has contracted with J.J. Phelan & Son Co., Inc. Construction will begin in November and you may start to see them mobilizing on site in the next few weeks.

To celebrate the start of this work, we will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on November 20th at 2pm (rain date: November 21st at 12pm) on the 5 Palmer Avenue property. Please come join us! All are welcome. This is an exciting moment to see Community Preservation Act dollars at work and to celebrate the addition of 18 new community garden beds for community use and benefit.

The designers at WOLA have completed their drawings and the Invitation to Bid (or IFB) is now live. In just a couple weeks, we'll have proposals from interested contractors and we'll begin the process of selecting one to construct the project. This is an exciting moment and we look forward to beginning this work in the fall.

If you're interested, you can find the IFB on the City's Procurement website here: https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/finance/purchasing/bids/ifb-24-19

Stay tuned for more updates!

The City of Somerville staff and the team at WOLA are working diligently to refine the design for this community garden expansion project. This phase is important to do with careful attention to detail to ensure that construction goes smoothly. Once these plans are finalized, we'll put the project out to bid to find a suitable contractor to see the project through to completion. We're getting close and we're very excited to see this project get underway!

You can find a nearly complete draft of the design plans under "Documents."

The design team at Wright Ostermier Landscape Architects (WOLA) has been hard at work turning the design concept into construction-ready plans. Take a look under the documents tab for a 75% complete draft!