Marysville resident Amanda Rutan converted a personal garden on her family’s property in Mechanicsburg into a community garden called the Plant Kindness Project. It features a 120-foot gourd tunnel, shown at left, 4,000-square foot sunflower patch, shown above, 1,500-square foot pumpkin patch and 1,600-square foot pollinator garden. The garden is open to the public and all vegetables and bouquets are free, with donations optional. (Photos submitted)
What began as a passion project for Marysville resident Amanda Rutan has now become a community-wide effort to spread kindness.
The Plant Kindness Project is a large, community garden on Rutan’s parents farmland in Mechanicsburg.
“I started thinking, I’m kind of onto something here,” Rutan said.
Rutan, an employee at Scotts-MiracleGro, grew up surrounded by agriculture. Her father is a fifth-generation farmer and her grandmother was a 4-H adviser.
She said it wasn’t until about five years ago, though, that she discovered her own love for gardening.
“I learned that’s what I love and what I want to do with my life,” Rutan said.
In 2017, she began a personal garden on her parents’ property, 2075 Bullard-Rutan Road in Mechanicsburg, including sunflowers, pumpkins and a variety of vegetables.
Rutan quickly ended up with more produce than she needed for herself, so she set up a small stand by the roadside to “get rid of the extras.”
There was one important caveat – no payment was required and donations were optional.
“I just enjoy sharing,” Rutan said.
While the produce stand was popular, Rutan said the Plant Kindness Project really began in 2019 when she decided to create a gourd tunnel.
Rutan and her father formed a frame using several cattle panels, bent into an arch and joined together. The 65-foot frame was then covered in the greenery from gourd and pumpkin vines.
Recently, Rutan expanded the tunnel to 120 feet and added solar lights throughout so community members can stroll through at night.
“Seeing something like that just attracts passersby,” she said, adding the garden has gotten “more and more visitors” since its creation.
As she continued to provide free veggies and bouquets from her garden, Rutan said it was simply word of mouth that caused the Plant Kindness Project to take off.
Throughout 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, she said the garden provided a safe, outdoor place that people could come to “get away from everything.”
Rutan said people from larger cities in Ohio often brought their lunch and sat at a picnic table or in the garden to experience a bit of “a relief” from day-to-day life.
As the number of visitors grew, Rutan left a guestbook for them to sign. She said she was surprised to learn that even people from out of state have stopped by her garden.
“The community response has been mind-blowing,” Rutan said.
While tending to a 4,000-square foot sunflower patch, 1,500-square foot pumpkin patch, 1,600-square foot pollinator garden and 120-foot gourd tunnel is no small task, Rutan said it is all worthwhile.
“Every winter, I always say, ‘I don’t know if I can do this again next year,” she said.
But, “it always seems to get bigger, not smaller,” she said with a laugh.
Rutan said it is truly a family effort that keeps PKP going.
She said her father plants many of the sunflowers with his field planter. She described her mother as a “social butterfly” who is often chatting with visitors and sharing homemade treats.
Rutan said she drives from her home in Marysville to Mechanicsburg nearly every day throughout the summer to tend to the plants, but her parents are her “irrigation system” since the land does not have irrigation installed.
While she loves the plants themselves, Rutan said the joy they bring to her fellow community members is what motivates her to keep growing.
She said she has always sought a way to turn her passions into kindness toward others. Now, she is convicted that plants “are the main way I know how.”
As summer approaches its end, Rutan said she is ready to hatch new ideas for PKP throughout the winter.
She’s not sure what’s on the horizon for next year, but hopes that she will ultimately be able to move the garden to land in Union or Champaign County to create a true community garden, separate from her parents’ land.
Until then, she said she is “super stoked” to keep spreading kindness.
“It’s just a good representation of how we should try to live,” Rutan said. “Go all out.”