The Montgomery City Public Library held an informational meeting on March 21 in its community room about its new community garden that is located near the St. Vincent de Paul Society building on Second Street.

Jenny Bossaller of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Bellflower resident Jim Braun, the University of Missouri Extension and Meredith Johnson of the Missouri State Library are MCPL’s co-partners of the community garden. Bossaller and Braun were in attendance at the meeting.

“We had a big donor who gave the College of Education a bunch of money for rural education,” said Bossaller, who is an associate professor at Mizzou’s School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. “I’m in the library science program and I really wanted to snag a bunch of money for us for libraries. So that’s where the idea about intergenerational programming came about. I’m hoping with the 4-H and the Missouri Extension, we can put together some programs with school age kids.”

The community garden is expanding as five new beds will be added to the existing ones. There will be 12 beds total with nine beds measuring four feet by eight feet and three beds measuring two feet by eight feet. Plans are being made for two of the beds to be accessible for those who are in wheelchairs.

Several people visited the garden after the meeting was over. MCPL Director Gaylee Harris said she hopes the new beds will be assembled later this spring.

“We’re hoping the expansion will be moving forward, but you know how Missouri weather is. You never be sure,” she said.

The garden has tools that will be housed in the locked garden box or at the library. Trowels, weeders, rakes, transplanters, scoops, cultivators, a knife, weed pullers, weed poppers are among those tools.

MCPL also plans to begin a seed library, so it is urging community members to save and dry seeds. There are directions to save and dry seeds available at MCPL.