Every spring, when I was a child, my parents would plant a vegetable garden.

We would plant tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots and my personal favorite — sugar snap peas.

While my dad turned the soil and did all the “heavy lifting,” my job was to plant the seeds in perfect rows.

Throughout the spring and summer, we would enjoy our vegetables and tend to the garden.

Most years, the garden flourished.

Since those childhood years, I have learned one thing. Those gardens didn’t flourish due to my green thumb.

In fact, I think my thumb is brown. On several occasions in my adult, life I have attempted to garden, with nothing but failure.

Plants don’t survive in my care.

So this week when I learned the Coupeville Community Garden was preparing for a May 1 opening, I was a little envious.

The Town of Coupeville started the garden four or five years ago after some people in the community raised the idea.

It was a town and Central Whidbey community effort, with local groups such as the Coupeville Garden Club and Central Whidbey Lions assisting.

Tools were donated, sheds were built and the community now has a public space for gardening.

Mayor Nancy Conard said the garden is for people who maybe don’t have the yard space at home, but would like to garden.

Gifts from the Heart even rents plots so patrons of the food bank can grow vegetables for themselves.

The cost is $30 per plot for the season and there are 60 plots available.

Conard said the garden usually doesn’t rent out every plot. She raised the idea that, if anyone wanted to grow vegetables for the food bank, she knows people who would sponsor the fee.

Gardening is a skill I don’t have, but it is definitely appreciated. And the Town of Coupeville providing this space for the community is definitely a great service.

— Megan Hansen is co-Editor of The Whidbey Examiner. Reach her at mhansen@whidbeynewsgroup.com