UPCOMING: Saturday, Oct. 22nd: Work Day for the Youth Group. We will build raised beds for the new garden and hopefully will even start planting new vegetables!
The garden has been readied in a very short time. On Sunday, Oct. 9th the youth group weeded, dug, hoed, raked, and leveled the ground for our new edible, organic garden. A roughly 10’x30′ plot was ready in just about an hour. What energy they had!
The senior high youth group members came back from their mission trip in Portland, Oregon, fired up about food justice. Instead of just donating cans of food to local needs, they wanted to work hands-on to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to people in need.
And so the idea for the edible garden was born…
The youth group is asking members of the congregation to “sponsor a plot,” by pledging to take care of one 4’x4′ section of the garden, sharing the produce with your family and with the organizations the youth have identified as recipients.
The youth will have a work day again on Oct. 22nd, building frames, adding soil, and maybe even planting if there’s enough time. We’re currently debating between wooden frames and strawbale frames for the 4’x4′ plots. If you haven’t seen strawbale gardens before, they are a recently popular form of gardening. They are comfortable for the gardener, too, as you don’t have to lean over so far and you have a built-in straw seat right next to your plot! The beautiful thing about them is that they are 100% compostable, as the straw is slowly incorporated into the dirt.
However, we also have the option of creating wooden frames which have a different beauty to them. They will be made of redwood pieces, planed and cut from the redwood tree that used to stand in the very same spot where the garden now stands! So all those who mourned when we had to cut down the tree – rejoice! Now the tree returns in a new form.
The plot of land is between the office and the family room, behind the deck. Come by and see it sometime.
