You can adopt a bed — not one to sleep in, but one to garden in — at the East Suffolk Recreation Center this year.

The community garden near the center consists of raised beds that are more than 10 feet long, three and a half feet wide and one and a half feet high. Eight are available for “adoption” this year, and they are ready and filled with compost and soil. The adoptions are free, as long as the adopter maintains their bed.

We think the possibilities are endless.

The program is open to families, church groups, businesses and other organizations. We can see an apartment-dwelling family growing some produce to eat at home, some church groups growing vegetables for their food pantry or soup kitchen, some community organizations planting some flowers to beautify the city, some businesses using it as a team-building exercise and more.

This is a great program to put the space to use while also inviting the community to make the effort a true community partnership. Gardening is great exercise for your body and cathartic for your mind, and we encourage any group who is able to adopt a bed.

Any families or groups that are interested in the Adopt-a-Bed program should contact Christian Prohaska by phone at 514-7281 or email at cprohaska@suffolkva.us.

Those that have completed the survey will be invited to a short orientation at the garden. There will be no fixed schedule and all planning, maintaining and harvesting will be up to each group.