Welcome to the Dickinson College Community Garden
2026 Season

The Dickinson College Community Garden is located on Dickinson College property.  The college has donated the land for the garden and also provides free access to water.  As time and staffing permits, the college also assists with tree maintenance in the areas surrounding the garden.  The Community Garden also benefits from resources provided by the Dickinson College Farm, including administrative support with our financial accounting, website management, and yearly membership applications and plot fee payment processing.

Our community garden -- in keeping with the Dickinson College’s sustainability and environmental stewardship goals -- is strictly organic and prohibits using ANY synthetic fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.  We maintain the garden as a strictly organic garden.  Please see “Questions and Answers” on the sidebar to help answer any other questions and direct you to several educational references on organic vegetable gardening.

The garden contains 41 plots: 25 small (4’x10’) and 16 large (10’x10’) in size.  We also have a Blueberry Patch with delicious berries, which birds love as much as we do.  The entire gardening area is surrounded by a 7-ft tall fence, constructed by the first group of gardeners back in 2013 after their plots and the first crops were devasted by deer, rabbits and groundhogs.

The Community Garden has two water spigots and hoses; a tool shed to keep equipment, supplies and hand tools; a blueberry patch; a pollinator garden, and eight herb bins.  We are very lucky: Dickinson College Organic Farm shares with us their farm-made compost.  We have also found a way to get wood chips delivered for mulching the garden walkways to prevent weeds from growing there.  All of the above is available to our gardeners, who are responsible for sharing and maintaining these garden assets.

The 2026 garden plot annual fee is $25 for a small plot and $50 for a large one.

In our USDA 7a zone the frost-free period -- according to the US Department of Agriculture - runs from April 15 to November 15.  Since there is still a chance of frost through April, we open our season around May 1st.  We close the season on November 15th.  After November 15 all plots need to be cleaned and “put to bed” for the winter; they should be preferably mulched to prevent winter soil erosion.

Because of our garden's popularity and our gardeners' dedication from year to year, we maintain a waiting list for the following season. Please fill out the APPLICATION FORM to be added to the waitlist. We will contact you when a plot becomes available.

The Dickinson College Community Garden is a beautiful place to experience wildlife, the surrounding environment, gardening friendships, and the peace and tranquility that comes from “playing in the dirt” and breathing fresh air.  We hope you join us!

Happy Gardening!