Back to What's New

Months from now, when you look back on 2009, you may remember the best times of the year when you were growing and maintaining your own garden.

Imagine being able to have an abundance of vegetables and flowers from spring through fall. These rich rewards from the earth can be yours when you have your own garden plot. 

Gardens are pleasing because they offer so many themes beyond the fresh-picked food they provide and their visual beauty.  Many gardeners say planting and cultivating a garden provides them with fond year-round memories, particularly a few seasons later when the ground is covered with snow. Gardeners also appreciate life lessons associated with work and rewards, exercise, fresh air, and a bit of inner peace that your own special sanctuary provides.

            This year, if you are looking for a breathtaking location to put in a garden, look no further than the community gardens at Conservancy Place. The master planned, mixed-use community in a vibrant, natural setting in DeForest is available to area gardeners for the first time this spring.

Joe Ring, Executive Vice President of Land Services with Park Towne Corporation, the company behind the development of the community gardens at Conservancy Place, says, “We wanted to provide a new way to bring people together, to garden, and to enjoy the natural beauty of this unique community.”

            While some public gardens have a singular large plot of land for people to garden, the new community gardens are different. Ring explains, “Each person who signs up for a garden plot has a space of 20 feet by 20 feet available to them. Then we till up the soil and make the individual plots ready for planting around April 15^th, weather permitting.” 

A river runs through it

When you visit community gardens, take time to take in the beautiful natural setting at Conservancy Place. This is one of the most unique environmental areas in Wisconsin.  Park Towne Corporation bought the property in 2001 and began designing the area the following year. “Conservancy Place was specifically designed to protect the Yahara River, which runs through the property,” says Ring.

One-third of Conservancy Place is permanent open space. The area encompasses 650 acres, and features a mix of housing and neighborhoods, and 140 acres of commercial, and 20 acres of retail space.

Conservancy Place has become well known for its outstanding natural features including, woods, water, wetlands, uplands, and a highly unique environmental feature called a sedge meadow. “This beautiful wetland feature is fed by surface and/or ground water,” says Ring. “It takes thousands of years to form the peat soil in a sedge meadow, making it a highly valued environmental feature.”

- continued-