MONTVALE—The borough’s community garden will likely open at D’Agostino Farms off Summit Avenue in early May, with room for 40 gardeners as the 2026 growing season begins, the mayor and borough officials told Pascack Press during a tour of the nearly 1-acre site.
Mayor Mike Ghassali said the community garden’s first year will be limited to 40 raised beds so local officials can get a sense of how the operation works. He said it could eventually expand to as many as 200 raised beds in coming years. The cost will be $25 per raised bed, per household.
When Pascack Press visited the farm on March 31, D’Agostino employees were laying out water lines for the raised beds, though no beds had yet been installed. Much of April will be needed to prepare the site for a May opening.
Ghassali said registration for the 40 raised beds will open Monday, April 6, for residents. He said he would notify residents by email and on social media. The raised beds are made of galvanized steel and will include landscape fabric, stones for drainage and organic soil for plant growth, according to administrator Joseph Voytus.
“We will have a waiting list,” Ghassali said.
He said he also plans to put up a banner near the garden calling it the “Fair Share Farming Center.” Otherwise, he said, the official name will be the Montvale Community Garden.
Ghassali has said the 8.4-acre former DePiero farm and farm stand likely would have been developed had the borough not purchased and preserved it for $5.15 million several years ago.
Ghassali and Voytus both praised the Environmental Commission for its role in helping make the garden a reality.
Volunteers needed; deer excluded
Officials said they are seeking volunteers to help assemble the large raised beds, move them to the field and prepare them for planting. They also said an 8-foot-high metal deer fence will be built around the garden to keep out what they described as an overabundance of deer.
(See “Deer count above average in Hillsdale, Montvale,” March 19.)
Voytus said the borough hopes to work with a nonprofit to install a permanent 30-by-40-foot pavilion at the community garden, possibly this year.
The raised beds were purchased through a $35,000 donation from the Hekemian Foundation in support of the Montvale Community Garden.
Voytus also said a parking lot with space for 10 cars will be available off Summit Avenue for gardeners accessing the beds.
Farm stand manager Matthew Epstein told Pascack Press he also hopes the farm stand at 53 Craig Road will open in early May and feature produce and crops from nearby farmers. He said he hopes the stand will continue serving the community.
The farm stand is being subleased from D’Agostino, Epstein said. Epstein’s partner is Matthew Worgul. The two also bid on the farm lease but were unsuccessful.
Following a legal challenge by Demarest Farm & Orchard after the 8.4-acre farm lease was awarded in October, D’Agostino Landscaping was officially awarded the lease in December after the court challenge was rejected.
D’Agostino Landscaping bid $43,200 for an annual lease on Montvale’s 8.4-acre former DePiero farmland. Two other bidders — Demarest Farm & Orchard and Matthew Epstein and Matthew Worgul — each submitted bids of $12,000 per year. Under the bid specifications, annual lease payments were to increase by 2% each year.
The Borough Council awarded the 20-year lease to D’Agostino Landscaping on Oct. 28, and Demarest Farm & Orchard filed its legal challenge two days later. A judge heard oral arguments in the case on Dec. 11 and, on Dec. 22, denied and dismissed the challenge.
(See “Judge dismisses Demarest suit; D’Agostino keeps DePiero Farm lease” by Michael Olohan, Dec. 27, 2025.)