On your marks, get set, grow!

The Helfand Farm Community Garden held the first of its two annual spring plant sales on Saturday, April 17, giving at-home horticulturalists a chance to get a head start on their gardens.

The sale, which was significantly smaller than the one that will be held on May 21 and 22, included cold-hearty plants like spinach, mustard greens, and portuguese kale.

“Everything here is ready to be planted right now,” said Helfand Farm volunteer and board member Bess Coughlin.

The plant sales are the main fundraiser for Helfand Farm’s food pantry garden, where volunteers produce thousands of pounds of vegetables to be distributed via local food pantry and soup kitchen programs in Dartmouth, Westport, and New Bedford.

“It’s sad but every community has people who are food scarce,” said Coughlin.

Board member and volunteer Marlene Holohan, who is primarily responsible for the food pantry project, said that it grew from a small corner of someone’s garden and grew through the generosity of volunteers to the program it is today.

“I couldn’t do it without help from lots of great volunteers,” she said, adding that in her supervisory role she was “just sharing the skills I learned here over the last several years.”

Helfand Farm’s primary role is as a community garden, where locals can rent a 10’x 20’ plot for just $65 a year to have as their own personal garden space — though they have to get to the top of the waiting list first.

“Your garden is your domain,” said Coughlin, who added that the group's mission is “making gardening accessible for all people.”

Coughlin said that while many Helfand gardeners rent plots because they live in apartments and don’t have access to growing areas, others come for the sense of community and the chance to learn from other gardeners.

Helfand’s next plant sale will be held on Saturday May 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday May 22 from 10 a.m. to noon.

The May sale will feature a wide variety of plants, including tomatoes, eggplant and “everything everyone always gets so excited about,” Coughlin said.