The Garden Connection – February 2026 | Volunteers and February Reflections

February is often a quiet month in the garden, but it isn’t idle. Plans are taking shape, conversations are beginning, and care continues even when little can be seen. This month, we’re reflecting on the people who make gardens possible and the many ways service takes root in these spaces.

Garden Spotlight: Dorothy Day House Garden (Youngstown, Ohio)

Established in 2010, the Dorothy Day House Garden is located next to the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality in Youngstown. The garden is maintained by a master gardener and a team of volunteers who grow produce for use in the evening meal service for guests of the house. Any excess harvest is also shared with guests.

The garden includes raised beds and a small greenhouse and produces a variety of crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries. Materials for the garden have been donated by individuals and organizations within the community, and community groups often assist with preparing the garden each year. Like many gardens, it faces its own challenges, but it continues through the steady care and commitment of volunteers.

February Garden Saints

Saint Blaise (February 3) Saint Blaise is best known as the saint associated with the blessing of throats. Less widely known is his connection to rural life and care for animals and agricultural workers. Before becoming a bishop, Blaise lived as a hermit close to the land and came to be invoked for protection of livestock and growing life.

Saint Dorothy of Caesarea (February 6)

Saint Dorothy is regarded as the patroness of gardeners. Her story comes from early Christian tradition and is set during a period of persecution. According to tradition, as she was led to execution, she was mockingly asked to send fruit from her bridegroom’s garden. Roses and fruit were later delivered in her name by a young boy, out of season in the depths of winter, leading to an unexpected conversion. On her feast day, trees are blessed in some places.

Saint Modomnoc (February 13) Saint Modomnoc was an Irish monk and beekeeper known for his close relationship with bees. While living at Saint David’s monastery in Wales, he tended bees for honey and wax, essential for both food and liturgy. When he returned to Ireland, tradition holds that the bees followed him, introducing honeybees to the land.

Saint Trifon (February 14)
Saint Trifon is one of the most explicitly agricultural saints in Christian tradition. He has long been honored by farmers and gardeners and invoked for protection of crops, especially against pests and disease. His witness reflects the everyday labor of cultivation, where attentiveness, patience, and care for what is vulnerable shape the work of the land.

Saint Walburga (February 25)
Saint Walburga was an Anglo-Saxon abbess shaped by Benedictine rhythms of prayer and work. She became associated with the protection of fields, crops, and livestock, and with healing oil said to flow from the earth at her shrine. Her legacy links care for land with care for community, grounded in stability, stewardship, and long-term faithfulness to place.

Volunteers Make Gardens Possible
Behind every garden is a community of people showing up in big and small ways. Across Catholic Garden Network, volunteers tend beds, welcome newcomers, organize supplies, share harvests, plan events, track details, and quietly care for spaces of beauty and hospitality.
You don’t need to be an expert gardener to be part of this work. Some people love working in the soil. Others prefer organizing, communicating, transporting donations, or helping behind the scenes. All of it matters.

Different Gardens, Different Volunteer Needs
Not all gardens require the same kind or level of volunteer support. Some spaces, such as prayer gardens, memorial plantings, or native plant areas, may need only occasional care. Others, especially food-producing gardens, rely on more regular help during the growing season.
What matters most is not the number of volunteers, but that each garden finds a rhythm that fits its purpose, scale, and community. There is no single model that works for every garden.

Ways People Volunteer in and Around Gardens

Across the CGN community, gardens thrive because people contribute in many different ways. You don’t need to be a gardener to be part of this work. People support gardens by:

Tending beds or assisting with seasonal garden work
Welcoming new volunteers or visitors
Packing or transporting produce donations
Organizing supplies or collection drives
Helping plan or host garden gatherings or events
Sharing updates through bulletins, newsletters, or social media
Creating or maintaining garden signs, labels, or educational displays
Building or repairing garden infrastructure such as fences, gates, trellises, or raised beds
Helping seek partnerships, in-kind donations, or fundraising support
Supporting planning, coordination, or communication behind the scenes
Tracking harvests, donations, or volunteer hours

Some roles are hands-on. Others happen behind the scenes or through relationships, fundraising, and shared resources. Together, these contributions help gardens across the CGN community become places of nourishment, connection, and care.