Between harvesting their vegetable yields, some Wareham residents are also harvesting community spirit.

Tucked behind the treeline on Tihonet Road, the Wareham Community Garden is home to roughly 30 families and individuals maintaining 40 garden plots, with gardeners yielding a bountiful harvest of produce in the company of friends and neighbors.

"You name it, we've probably got it here," said resident Dick Paulsen.

Paulsen was instrumental in getting the project going roughly six years ago. He said he had seen similar gardens in other towns doing well and decided that Wareham needed one too upon relocating here from Boston.

"I grew up gardening," said Paulsen, "so when we moved to Wareham, I went to see Mike Hogan, the CEO of A.D. Makepeace, and talked to him about it, and he was very receptive to the idea."

"What they did went well beyond the norms of being a good citizen."

Paulsen said he was glad A.D. Makepeace, the world's largest cranberry grower who are also located on Tihonet Road, agreed to facilitate the start of the garden, and was surprised at just how far they went.

Makepeace delivered a parcel of land with the plots already cut out and an irrigation system installed. All Makepeace asked in return was that everything be grown organically.

Most of the community gardeners are from Wareham and Onset, with a few hailing from Marion.

Jim Smith of Onset said that the community garden was a great way to recapture the gardening space he had worked with before moving to his current home.

"I just moved here in November," said Smith. "For thirty years I always had my own garden. Where I live now in Onset, it's all bricks, so I heard about [the community garden] through the (Wareham) Garden Club and thought it would be great to be able to garden again."

"It's relaxing," said Smith as he watered his favorite crop, tomatoes.

Smith maintains two plots, or "rectangles" as they are called here. Many people and families have multiple rectangles for the added space. Onset resident Dick Wheeler is known at the garden for maintaining five or six rectangles.

So, why "rectangle" instead of "plot?"

"We don't call them plots because it kind of implies the wrong thing," said Smith with a laugh.

The fee for a rectangle at the community garden is $35 a year, which includes mowing, water, and a yearly manure treatment. The garden is currently full, but, according to Paulsen, there is roughly a 10 percent membership turnover every year due to people moving away, so obtaining a plot is well within reach.

"It's a change of pace for me, said community gardener Sandy Slavin. "You turn your back and the weeds take over!"

Every week, Slavin and her husband, Selectman Alan Slavin, bring most of the vegetables their plot yields to seniors in town, which Paulsen said is part of the philosophy at the garden.

"Nothing should get wasted, and nothing does get wasted," said Paulsen.