Greetings garden
friends! After what seemed to be an
endless winter spring is finally
here and its many blessings are abundant in the Garden of Concord! Since our official “Wake up the Garden” event
on March 7th, we have welcomed 14 new garden families, 23 renewed
memberships, and 10 garden angels (that help others to garden with us!)! We have also been blessed with a donation
from S.A.F.E. to be used towards our seeds and supplies along with a grant from
North Carolina Community Garden Partners to build a large scale vermicompost
(to house lots of worms!). Praise God
for answered prayers in “His sending out many workers (and angels) into His
harvest field” (Matthew 9:38)!
And many hands do
make light work! We have already logged
in 9 workdays/nights consisting of over 250 total hours shared by 140 garden
stewards (plus lots of kids!) prepping beds, pushing compost, weeding,
planting, reconnecting, and celebrating the new garden year. Thanks be to God for our work assignments as
well as the overwintered harvests of spinach, mache, and green onions!
Our early plantings
of peas, spinach, carrots, radishes, arugula, spring mix, beets have all popped
up along with our plantings of onions, kale, cabbage, Swiss chard, and lettuce
transplants. The strawberries are
blossoming and the garlic looks gorgeous!
Recent sowings include turnips, potatoes, dill, and more lettuce, beets,
and carrots with a plenty more plantings prepping in the greenhouse!
As we look forward
to sharing our newly planted spring sowings, we have been blessed to share our
garden in other ways through several speaking engagements and scheduled garden
tours, along with an article in the Times News!
Our current vision is to welcome our “BEJ Backpack Kids” as well as all
our neighbors in need to grow with us. We
also look forward to the return of CrossWave for another weekend full of shared
blessings to include helping out in the garden on Saturday beginning with a
garden dedication of our new 16 bed addition!
Other proposed plantings
include the establishment of a garden library, renewal of a junior gardeners
program, development of shared leadership, a “Planting Partners Program”
involving area businesses, and added infrastructure to include a walk-in cooler
and washing station…all God willing! Our
7th year beginning brings continued thankfulness and faith in God’s
will and purpose for our garden ministry as we reach out to many through the
shared working and taking care of His creation as well as feeding many in need
in food and fellowship.
Thank you to our many garden friends for your prayers and
support of our garden…
It WILL be good!
“God saw all that
He had made, and it was very good.”
(Genesis 1:31)
Blessings,
Donna Poe
Garden Coordinator
