SALEM — It was an idea that sprouted among a few friends in a book group, and it quickly took root.

Now, Salem Community Gardens is in its third season, with sites at two public parks and a total of 140 plots tended by local residents and their families — and there's a waiting list of 35.

The gardeners donate produce to St. Joseph Food Pantry weekly and host potlucks using vegetables plucked from their gardens. The organization hopes to open a third garden next spring.

"It's fabulous when people who live a few blocks apart meet for the first time at the garden and get to know each other," gardener Lisa Spence said as she walked among the rows of fragrant herbs, purple beans, colorful Swiss chard, and ripening cucumbers and tomatoes in the gardens at Mack Park.

These Salem green thumbs are part of a national trend toward community gardening, echoed by the U.S. agriculture secretary's proclamation of a National Community Gardening Week, which starts tomorrow.

Even first lady Michelle Obama broke ground on a White House kitchen garden this year.

"This year there's a tremendous surge of interest in gardens and especially community gardens," said William Hanger, who tends a plot at the Salem Community Gardens at Palmer Cove.

"What's fun is that a lot of my neighbors have plots here, and I've made a few friends, too," Hanger said. "I think Salem Community Gardens is a huge success."

The way it works is gardeners sign up and pay $15 annually for a plot. Members have the choice of volunteering two hours to help maintain the garden, or instead, they can pay an additional $30 fee.

Like any new endeavor, there have been successes and growing pains, but the volunteers who comprise the organization tweak things as they go.

"We've realized we really need systems," said Spence, who is co-president of Salem Community Gardens with Leslie Tuttle.

This year, they instituted the volunteer requirement, as well as "garden captains," who serve as coordinators for each of the gardens, providing "another layer of people to deal with the issues that come up day-to-day," Spence said. That is Hanger's role at Palmer Cove.

There have been other challenges, like gardeners who abandon their plots, or people who come into the gardens and steal vegetables.

"One of the bigger challenges is the theft issue," Spence said, "and managing it so the gardeners aren't disheartened."

Sharing the bounty

In spite of challenges, the gardens foster friendships and community.

"We have gatherings here in the evenings sometimes," Hanger said as he took out his pocket knife and lopped the head off a towering sunflower in his plot. "We'll just have a potluck of different things we made from our harvests and everyone shares."

"We haven't had any garden marriages yet," Spence said with a laugh, "but who knows."

As the organization blossoms, so does the community interest. Spence said they hope to accommodate dozens of people queuing for plots by opening a third garden next spring, possibly in the park at Collins Cove.

"We have not advertised plots for two years," Spence said. "It's just been word-of-mouth, which is great."

The group started a new newsletter this year with everything from gardening tips to notices about garden socials.

"We're enhancing communication," said Spence, whose plot is sprouting soybeans, radicchio, corn, catnip, camomile and more.

Different gardeners add their touch, like Bev Pasquarello's painted wooden signs at the Mack Park garden that depict wildflowers, strawberries and more.

A beautiful bean trellis springs from the center of one plot, pink flamingos peer out from another plot and pinwheels spin in the wind.

Michael Conley and his wife, Katrina Sealey, keep a pristine plot in the corner of the Palmer Cove garden, in which vegetables spring from garden beds made inside colorfully painted tires.

"I'm just the water boy," Conley said with a laugh as he visited the garden on a recent afternoon to water the plot. "We love it here."

The organization hopes to grow its educational offerings by offering classes through the Parks and Recreation Department. Salem's two gardens are now part of the American Community Gardening Association's database.

"We want to make the gardens a more permanent piece of Salem's recreational offerings," Spence said.

Mack Park was the first garden the group opened, then Palmer Cove opened last year.

The gardens are open to Salem residents, and an array of people have plots, including local restaurant owners, Girl Scouts, and even Saltonstall School and Salem Academy Charter School.

"We have gardeners who come in knowing absolutely nothing," Spence said, "and some gardeners with 50 years experience."

"The Saltonstall students come here every Friday morning: these tiny little kids," said Hanger, a Salem Community Gardens board member. "They'll be excited to come back in September and harvest again."

There is also a community plot outside the gates of the Palmer Cove garden, which the gardeners tend and from which the public is welcome to pick vegetables.

And when gardeners go on vacation, they can opt to donate food from their plot, which the volunteers will pick for the food pantry.

"For me, it's immensely satisfying to dig my fingers into the soil," Hanger said, "plant something, care for it, and watch it grow and eventually be able to put it on my dinner plate."

To learn more about Salem Community Gardens, visit www.growsalem.org.

Staff writer Amanda McGregor can be reached at amcgregor@salemnews.com or 978-338-2665.