Some ideas drift like so much fluff on the wind.

But when Joyce Brown got the idea for starting a Food Share garden, it germinated and grew almost overnight.

What was an empty, sun-baked lot next to Food Share a few weeks ago is now an impressive affair - two 90-foot rows of wooden, raised-bed garden plots.

The garden also has a timed watering system and is enclosed by a fortress-like deer fence.

And vegetables are already growing.

Brown is the first to tell you that the garden came about through an amazing collaboration of community partners, local businesses and volunteers.

But there's no denying, it wouldn't have happened this fast - or perhaps at all - if Brown hadn't taken the idea at a gallop.

"It's been quite a bit of fun," Brown said. "We started in April and we really had to push to make it come together this season."

And push they did.

"It's such a worthwhile project that everybody contributed without coaxing," Brown said. "It took on a life of its own."

"I was looking for something to do," said Brown. "I read this book 'Encore' about doing something after you retire and not being a drain on the system. I was looking for something with flexible hours and this made a lot of sense."

Brown, the former Department of Administration administrator of the state employees' benefits program, wanted something totally different from her career.

She'd been reading about growing local food and community gardens. They are one way communities can respond to food shortages that are occurring in parts of the world, she said.

And the garden "certainly responds to Food Share's need," she added. "They need healthy food."

"It's also responding to the energy problem," she said. There are lower transportation costs when food is grown locally, as well as less air pollution and contribution to global warming.

"I just think growing local food is a time that's come again," she said. "We did it once. We need to do it again because of the energy problem and environmental problems," she said.

Brown found out about others working to create community gardens - the Growing Community Project run by Working for Equality & Economic Liberation and Alternative Energy Resources Organization.

"I started working with them and it's been great. I knew what I wanted to work on, so it went fast."

"Because we grew food, as I was growing up, I know something about gardening."

Raised on a farm in Michigan, she was gardening by age 4 or at least traipsing through the garden and being a nuisance.

Visitors to the Food Share Garden step through the gate of a sturdy enclosure made of wooden posts and 7-foot-high, plastic deer fencing.

Inside, two knee-high, sturdy wooden beds - 4 feet wide and 90 feet long - run the length of the enclosure, with a path between them and around their perimeters.

The raised beds to the left are community garden spaces. The 11 beds to the right are designated for Food Share.

Some baby vegetables are already sprouting through the soil.

Brown points out carrots, romaine lettuce, onions, kohlrabi, summer squash, Swiss chard, tomatoes, corn and beans.

As the garden grows, so does the neighbors' curiosity.

They and Food Share clients are stopping by.

Brown hopes they may want to volunteer or try some plants on their own.

"I'm encouraging people to grow vegetables - even if it's a tomato in a pot. It keeps them connected to nature, and it's tasty.

"I just hope we have gardens all over Helena."

Soon there will be a "volunteer-for-veggies" program up and running, as well, with volunteers receiving a bag of produce in thanks for their labor.

Helena Food Share Executive Director Ann Waickman appreciates all the garden offers.

"It's not only going to help people get food out of that garden," said Waickman, "it's also helping people see how to do it and find out what it looks like.

Waickman credits Brown with creating the garden.

"Joyce said we should do this," Waickman said. "She made it happen. She made it so.

"She moved very quickly."

There was a lot of planning and a lot of work seeking community support.

Brown also had logistical difficulties with the site.

Food Share plans to use the land the garden lies on for building a large warehouse sometime in the future, said Waickman.

But Brown wasn't deterred.

If the garden was built with raised beds, Brown reasoned, the soil and materials could be saved and moved.

"She took a situation of what I thought wouldn't work and made it work," said Waickman.

Brown also secured donations from seeds to veggie starts to lumber, posts, soil, compost and hoses.

Both businesses and volunteers offered valuable services - from planning to plumbing to construction.

"She was the one with the vision and the tenacity to say, 'Would you help, would you give materials?' It was all her leadership that made this happen," said Jim Barngrover of AERO.

"She came to us with an idea about a garden at Food Share," said Rachel Conn, an organizer at WEEL who supervises the Growing Community Project.

"Joyce is such a go-getter. She just put her mind to it," said Conn.

"She came with an idea. She got other people excited too. She got people working with other people and got something fantastic going like a garden.

"I just hope there are more Joyce Browns in the world," said Conn.

Get involved

For information about garden plots and the Food Share Garden, call Layna George at WEEL, 495-0497.

Contributors:

AERO -- garden planning

WEEL -- volunteer organizing

Ray Brown -- plumbing

Jonda Crosby -- compost

Gold Country Mushroom -- compost

Helena Sand & Gravel -- assistance with shooter truck, contributions of soil and gravel

High Country Growers -- plants

Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse -- hose and timer

Marks Lumber -- lumber

Marks-Miller Post & Pole -- posts

Montana Conservation Corps -- volunteer labor

Murdoch Ranch & Home Supply -- weed barrier fabric

Pacific Steel & Recycling -- rebar

Power Townsend -- soaker hoses

Rock Hand Hardware -- soaker hoses

UBC/Pro-Build -- lumber

Gary Parisi Plumbing -- plumbing and faucet installed

Richard Thieltges -- construction assistance