SARANAC LAKE — Volunteers with Common Ground Gardens, a community garden with locations around Saranac Lake, are rejuvenating the Old Lake Colby garden site, which will be the sole site for garden plots moving forward.

Parts of the garden have become overgrown, so volunteers and gardeners, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, are hard at work, re-raising the ground, building a new fence, eradicating Japanese Knotweed and other invasives and plotting out and building new raised beds.

The garden will officially open on June 1, so contractors can be ensured a safe working space amid the pandemic.

“Everything feels different in 2020 as we face a never-before-seen set of challenges in the battle against COVID-19, and gardening, too, will be different,” current Garden Coordinator Zohar Gitlis and outgoing Coordinator Andrea Audi wrote in an email. “We will roll with the mandatory distancing measures as they evolve, perhaps creating schedules to limit the number of people in the garden at once, and shifting training and meetings to online platforms.

“Yet, as economies struggle and food supply chains are disrupted, interest in gardening, local food, and mutual aid are on the rise. The time has never been better to learn how we can feed ourselves and our communities by tending local soils.”

Organizers said they are looking for donations of bags of leaves, which if members of the community have after doing spring yard work, they can drop off next to the shed at 254 Old Lake Colby Road. They are also looking for a donated picnic table as, after 12 years, the old one has been retired.

Garden plots sizes this year will include: the Sweet Pea Plot (50 sq. ft.), a low-maintenance raised bed, for new and busy gardeners; the Kitchen Garden Plot (100 sq. ft.), for a gardener with some experience, looking to produce a stream of vegetables throughout the summer peak and able to commit to regular maintenance; and the Homesteader Plot (230 sq. ft.), a large in-ground plot for experienced gardeners who can commit to frequent attention.

Plots can be reserved on the Common Ground Gardens Facebook page, website or by leaving a message at (518) 241-6167.

“As temperatures continue to rise, now is the time to start planning and seeding,” Gitlis and Audi wrote. “If you are a new gardener, don’t worry too much about starting seeds early, there will be plenty of time for growing ample greens, beans, summer squash and carrots by the time the Common Ground Gardens opens its shiny new gate. If you have more experience, get those tomatoes, peppers, and first successions of salads and greens going indoors.”