(Courtesy photo) Volunteers with Grow Nashua and "Love, Tito's Block to Block" community garden and farm program use pitchforks to fill wheelbarrows with wood chips for distribution throughout the Pine Street urban growing space.

NASHUA – The downtown Nashua green space known as the Pine Street Urban Growing Space just recently received a comprehensive makeover, thanks to a team of nearly two dozen volunteers representing Grow Nashua, the nonprofit that oversees the space and its gardens, and the national initiative “Love, Tito’s Block to Block,” an affiliate of the beverage company Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

Once on scene, the volunteers spread out to their assigned projects, which included building or fixing raised garden plots, spreading wood chips along the walking paths between the gardens, adding new plantings to the beds, and enlarging seating areas where gardeners and visitors can take a break and enjoy the space.

The teams of volunteers “worked together to upgrade the farm, allowing for the continued effort of increasing access to fresh, nutrient-dense food,” especially for people who don’t live within walking distance of stores and have limited transportation options – and those who struggle with the expense of nutritious foods, according to a statement the agencies distributed.

Also part of the recent upgrade project of the growing space, which runs alongside the Nashua Heritage Rail Trail and Pine Street, was the construction and painting of new gates, the statement said.

This is the third year that Grow Nashua has partnered with Love, Tito’s for projects ranging from sprucing up the gardens to creating wheelchair accessibility features and upgrading the general garden infrastructure, Grow Nashua executive director Justin Munroe, who founded the nonprofit in 2015, told the Patch online news service.

(Courtesy photo) Love, Tito's Block to Block and Grow Nashua volunteers level off one of the series of raised gardens they built as part of the Pine Street urban growing space makeover recently.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

(Courtesy photo) Two of the many volunteers who came together recently to upgrade the network of gardens in Nashua's Pine Street urban growing space spread wood chips over a cardboard base in between the raised gardens.

(Courtesy photo) Nashua's Pine Street urban growing space is shown in the process of a recent makeover by teams of volunteers from Love, Tito's Block to Block program and Grow Nashua, who worked together to upgrade the growing space.

(Courtesy photo) The team of volunteers from Love, Tito's Block to Block project and Grow Nashua gathered for a quick photo while taking a brief break from their Pine Street project.

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