Woodstock City Lifestyle

Nurturing a Garden, Mobilizing a Community

The community-focused dedication of Melanie and Rob of Trefoil Gardens

Melanie and Rob started Trefoil Gardens in 2016. Since then, it has grown into a local community garden space unmatched in scale and impact. Their neighbors are involved, and the garden has grown to cover several once-grass-only yards. 

Today, Trefoil Gardens includes rows of fruit trees, strawberries, asparagus, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes, to name a few plants growing in April. They also grow flowers, which Melanie harvests and crafts into bouquets to sell at Woodstock Farm Fresh Market to help support the garden.

They describe their project as an “unintentional intentional” community. Rob says he wakes up every morning grateful to everyone in his neighborhood and community who has made the space available and nurtured its growth. He says, “We were just practicing in our yard, and people started talking to us about what we were doing and inviting us to do it in their yards, too.” 

Rob and Melanie are active in their commitment to community: they offer open work days every Thursday, where they share their knowledge, informed by their background in permaculture, with people seeking to learn gardening or to form connections. Also on Thursdays, they host a free Community Yoga Practice. 

Trefoil Gardens has been working with Woodstock to make fresh, locally grown food more accessible through Georgia’s Fresh For Less program. This program accommodates customers who use food stamps during market days.

Trefoil Gardens has spent the last five years working in the community to make fresh, locally grown food more accessible through Wholesome Wave, Georgia’s Georgia Fresh 4 Less program, doubling the value of SNAP (food stamps) and sharing that benefit with other vendors.

He points out that there are only convenience stores within walking distance of the market for SNAP shoppers to use their benefits, but there are three food banks in the same area. “This points to a serious need in our community,” says Rob, “where we have the Greenprints trail connecting our market directly with low-income housing all over and around Woodstock.” 

Unfortunately, when they were renewing their UDSA SNAP authorization last month, they found out they would no longer be able to share this benefit with the market, leaving them as the sole provider of this vital service to our community. The Woodstock Office of Economic Development (OED) has expressed an interest in taking up the program, and Trefoil Gardens has offered to help with labor and support. In the meantime, this leaves a tremendous food access gap in our city.

“In the five years, we were able to extend these benefits to partner vendors, we grew this program to include almost every vendor who offered qualifying products. This gave shoppers so many options and improved equity for everyone,” Rob continues, “For every SNAP dollar that was swiped at our stand, up to $7 was infused into the local community. With our offer to help the City OED, we expect to see the program back up and running soon.” In the meantime, SNAP shoppers can continue to shop Trefoil Gardens’ fresh fruits and vegetables at 1⁄2 off.

Trefoil Gardens has grown into an asset to Cherokee County's community. The project isn’t merely a garden space; it’s also an effort to nurture and share lasting and mutually beneficial resources, knowledge, and fellowship.

Trefoil Gardens is at Woodstock Farm Fresh Market on Saturdays or Thursdays at its open farmstand and workdays. To get involved, visit trefoilgardens.com or @trefoilgardens on Instagram.

The project isn’t merely a garden space; it’s also an effort to nurture and share lasting and mutually beneficial resources, knowledge, and fellowship.

Article and Photos by Sara Hagan for Woodstock City Lifestyle Aug 20, 2024