AUBURN — What started as some vacant land at Auburn Mall Apartments has been transformed into a bountiful garden that kept four families well stocked with vegetables this summer and will likely carry many of them through winter.

“Isn’t this awesome,” Marge Chaplin said. “I didn’t expect anything to grow in clay, but it’s come out so good and we’ve been very happy.”

Chaplin and her neighbors approached the property manager of the Aron Drive apartment complex just off Center Street this past spring about using the strip of land to plant gardens. For Chaplin, the request came out of sheer boredom after she and her husband sold their Naples home last year and moved into the apartment complex.

Chaplin said the thing she missed the most was spending time in her large garden each summer. Now, with three other neighbors, the 65-year-old woman has plenty of garden to spend time in these days.

“This has been so great. I can’t wait for next year. We’ve already got a lot more people interested,” Chaplin said. “Most people just stop to look and comment that it’s a great thing that management has done.”

Chaplin said property manager Anna McCormick allowed the group of neighbors to use a rototiller to plow a large section of undeveloped land in between two buildings. The group of four invested about $800 between them to install raised beds and buy seeds and additional soil for their experimental garden.

Plans are already in the works to expand the garden and add another six plots to the site. So far this summer, Chaplin and her neighbors have harvested everything from tomatoes and cucumbers to lettuce and zucchini. Just around the corner this fall, the group will be harvesting pumpkins and squash. One neighbor even planted sunflowers.

“For the size of the garden, we’ve had a really good yield this year,” fellow gardener Jim Richmond, 68, said. “I think it’s great. I’m glad management gave us the opportunity to do this.”

Richmond and Chaplin said the four neighbors involved in the project have been sharing their bounty with family, especially with grocery store prices being what they are these days. Richmond, who moved to Auburn from Rumford after retiring from the paper plant two years ago, still has several family members living in the area, and he takes them fresh produce weekly.

Chaplin was quick to apologetically point out that all the hard work put in by the four tenants is meant for those four families. She and Richmond said they caught at least two people stealing from the garden, which many mistake for a community garden. She both urged and welcomed people interested in the project to make sure and get involved next year.

“This is just our garden this year. Each of us has our own section, but everybody works together to make it a success,” Chaplin said. “Just look at what you can do with just a little imagination.”