It contains 40 plots and a lot of love. In its second year, Wareham Community Gardens is filled to capacity, and gardeners are turning the soil and readying for growing season.

First things first: "You don't call them plots at my age," said The Chief Planter Dick Paulsen. "Call them rectangles."

The rectangles are located on a patch of land off of Tihonet Road that was donated by A.D. Makepeace. "[Makepeace] not only very generously donated the land, but they laid out all the rectangles," Paulsen said. Makepeace also put in piping for water and helps with cutting the grass.

Paulsen approached Makepeace two years ago when looking for space to put a community garden. Makepeace was supportive of the idea.

"This is a great and very consistent use of our land," said Makepeace director of marketing and communications Linda Burke. The land was used for employee gardens in the past, she said.

Community gardeners planted everything from tomatoes to potatoes, beans, lettuce, onions, and eggplant last year.

"It's great for people like me," said Bill Jennings, who shared a rectangle with his wife, Pamela, last year, and upgraded to a double-rectangle this season. "I've got a small yard, [and] it's heavily shaded," making it difficult to grow vegetables, he said.

The community garden land is wide open, with almost no shade.

"It gets a little warm in the summer," Paulsen said. "But on the other hand, it's great for the vegetables. They love it."

Only organic fertilizers are allowed in the gardens. And Paulsen has a homemade concoction for keeping deer and other critters away, called Dick's Dragon and Deer Deterrent.

"It smells awful," Paulsen said. "It must smell really awful to the deer."

The mixture's motto, "You don't see any dragons, do you?," is appropriate. The gardeners had no trouble with deers last year.

But the group did have some unexpected guests: Turtles. A turtle laid eggs in the area, which the gardeners kept an eye on until they hatched. And then they were gone, Paulsen said, adding that they must have wandered off.

Gardeners donated extra food to the Council on Aging and area churches after last year's harvest. Paulsen said he hopes to do the same this year.

For more information about Wareham Community Gardens, visit www.warehamcommunitygardens.com. Additionally, organizations wishing to request food donations can send a note through that website.