Garden Details
Garden Details
In our work and garden-oriented teaching, we strive to cultivate a reverence of Creation, an awareness of God’s presence in all living things, and to practice Christ’s merciful love for those who suffer, through our call to stewardship for Creation and our common home. Our garden is a resource for our larger community – Our current garden was built out over 2022-2024. It consists of raised beds (16″ height for accessibility) of varying lengths. Approximately 1800 sq ft is devoted to growing food crops for the on-site commercial kitchen that feeds volunteers and clients, as well as the client-choice pantry (the Market). The remaining 400 sq ft is devoted to pollinator plants, strawberries for children to find and eat, and 34 ft of herbs for use by the Culinary Arts Training Program. We have a permanent asparagus bed, while the rest of the beds are planted for seasonal production. We have a “little free library” with books on gardening for readers of all ages.
Garden Practices
Garden Practices
We use native plants throughout the campus in ornamental beds and interplanted among vegetables as much as possible to attract and sustain native insect populations and pollinators. We interplant crops that are compatible to maximize space and reduce bare ground. We practice sustainable and even regenerative agricultural methodologies, utilizing "integrated pest management" by the use of various herbs and flowers to deter vegetable crops pests or attract pollinators, practice crop rotation, and work to increase soil organic matter through use of mulch and compost in order to decrease need for watering. We utilize drip irrigation to put water at plant roots directly. We strive to apply permaculture techniques in that outputs are turned into inputs (plant materials are composted), warehouse rotting vegetables are incorporated into beds and/or compost bins for decomposition, leaves from trees on campus are gathered and utilized as mulch.
On the periphery of the campus we have a (registered) Monarch Waystation, and on the opposite side of the campus we have a large pollinator patch with native plants for native pollinators. In addition, we have installed a rain garden with drains to capture a large runoff from the roof and plant it into the ground for ornamental plants and grasses.
In the vegetable garden we grow asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, sweet potatoes, kennebec and red potatoes, black-eyed peas, okra, peppers (sweet and hot), squash, carrots, turnips, greens (Swiss chard, mustard, chicory), radishes, strawberries, onions, garlic. For herbs we grow sage, thyme, oregano, basil, horseradish, dill, fennel, cilantro, and parsley. We have thriving zinnias for picking as well as marigolds, Russian sage, and red clover for pollinators and color.
We welcome schools, churches, and companies as visitors, for education, and for service hours. Groups as large as 40 persons (adults or students) are frequent volunteers for our garden. We accommodate toddler home-school groups as well as elementary to high school groups. We are flexible in the type of garden work that we set aside for them. Our garden beds were built in three phases by a local engineering firm. They also bult a Little Free Library and set it in the ground for us. It was decorated by the 13-year old granddaughter of one of our volunteers. We have been gifted plants and seeds by local companies. Eagle scouts have built the centerpiece of our garden (a bed in the shape of a cross) as well as our compost tumblers. Two classes of a local community college metal shop laser cut over 60 steel signs with crop names and welded them onto 3 ft rods so that we can label our plantings (tomatoes, peppers, peas, etc.). In addition, they cut four gospel quotes onto signs that are placed in the four corners of the vegetable garden. A local microgreens grower donated his spent growing medium, and a mushroom grower donated a load of his compost. A local Catholic church's home improvement crew erected our greenhouse in one long, 10-hour day. The local County Health Department contributed funds for materials for the build-out of the second phase of the garden, and now partners with us to sponsor garden workshops (one last year, two this year). A large-scale composting company that closed its business brought us 5 cubic yards of compost as a gift.
Additional Information
Additional Information
We have been blessed, in that when a need arises, a solution comes our way.
One of our goals is to serve as a resource for local Catholic-associated gardens. We currently have two such gardens with which we share abundance (seeds, plants) that come our way. We are constantly seeking others (or encouraging schools to start gardens).
Another challenge has been reaching out to Catholic (and public) schools in the area to invite them for educational field trips, to see Creation Care in action.
A goal (and challenge) is to plan and schedule gardening classes that would be open and accessible to the clients who come to us.
Three years ago we were asked to advise about the possibility of installing a garden at an associated pantry. The area was measured, possible garden bed designs were shared, the priest had funds available, and the home improvement crew was available, with a Bobcat! With all materials assembled inside of two weeks, the garden beds were built and filled within three hours! The school decorated the concrete blocks to beautify the beds. The garden supplies food for the associated pantry.
