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After 30 years of using cocaine, Tim Williams knows he has a long road to recovery ahead of him. But Williams, who currently resides at a substance abuse clinic in Laurel, said a new community garden next to the Phelps Center is helping him focus on the here and now, rather than worrying about the future.

"It takes your mind off everything else," Williams, 53, said at the garden's official opening on April 8. "Plus, it's good for the community."

Four different Laurel organizations — the Laurel Boys and Girls Club, Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services, Reality Treatment Centers and the Phelps Senior Center — have partnered to support the new vegetable and flower garden, which consists of a 30-by-50-foot main plot and two smaller, raised beds along the Eighth Street side of the Phelps Center.

Planting began April 7, and officials from the four groups say they are hoping the garden becomes a way for individuals from all walks of life to grow as a community.

Lana Dreyfuss is a clinical supervisor at Reality, a Laurel nonprofit that serves as a halfway house for former substance abusers. Dreyfuss, who also heads the American Horticultural Therapy Association — a national organization that promotes the healing nature of gardening — said tending to plants can be therapeutic for recovering addicts because of the time commitment and focus that must go into the process.

"You're concentrating on [the plants], so everything else ... is kind of let go of," she said. "If you can grow a plant, you can grow as well."

The gardening plot was dug up by city officials last fall, Dreyfuss said, and Behnke Nurseries donated the two raised beds. Gardeners from Reality and the other groups are still deciding what exactly they will plant but they hope to have everything in the ground by the end of May. All the flowers are also being donated, but Reality is seeking someone to donate compost and fencing materials in the coming weeks.

Once the seeds are planted, volunteers will take turns every week tending the flowers and vegetables. Food from the garden will be used to feed people who receive assistance at Reality and LARS, but Dreyfuss said the project is focused on gardening, not the physical yield of the work.

Donny Phillips, director of emergency and homeless services at LARS, said LARS officials are still determining exactly how they will be involved. Phillips said he plans to develop a way for LARS clients, many of whom are homeless and looking for work, to become involved with the gardening.

"It's really good for people to be involved and do things," he said.

In addition to the therapeutic nature of gardening, Reality resident Charles McCorvey, 51, said the project gives people receiving assistance a way to do something beneficial for the community that has helped get them back on their feet.

"It's just a way for me to give back and help somebody else," he said.