2024 has been a year of cultivating not only food, herbs and flowers but a sense of gratitude. The Community Garden at St. James is an integral component for community health, wholeness and well-being.
Dennis and I have been asked questions about how many pounds of food will be donated, to whom, and what are the goals per raised bed. Now that the heat of the summer is upon us, and we have met challenges pertaining to product, quantities and volunteer time constraints we have a different way of looking at the garden.
Starting with the 4 raised beds the children and teens have planted and named “Christoph’s Crops”. These beds were planted with a prayer honoring the memory of Christoph Herpel. The children and their families learned a lot, worked together and had fun in the process. We have all been amazed that most of the crop of green beans was enjoyed by local community ‘bunnies’. The bunnies did not snack on the yummy carrots, so we planted more of them.
Some crops did well, others did not. Some seeds germinated well, some did not. Pumpkins have been added that will trail from the bed near Grove Street down towards the garden.
The Community Garden has led us to search inward and be in touch with the many gifts and blessings present in our lives. Yes, it boiled down to the limitless value of ‘a small handful of green beans’. On Thursday mornings when the Thrift Shop is open, a table is set up with fresh produce for visitors to take home. The first day of the harvest a women asked Dennis for just a small handful of green beans. When he came home that afternoon and recounted the story he was brought to tears. A simple gift of grace. The following week, a gentleman from Indonesia asked for one squash, and bowed in thanks. The following week a woman asked Dennis to show her the garden, which he did. She immediately went into the office and made a donation for the garden. Families with small children are thrilled to take hot peppers, fresh tomatoes and potatoes home to prepare healthy meals.
The Community Garden has become a Giving Garden. The Giving Garden is here to enrich human life, and, no doubt, the life of bunnies. We are encouraged to continue to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in the garden at St. James.
If you have a garden at home, and find you have an abundance of produce, please feel free to drop off whatever you have on Wednesday evenings or Thursday morning on the picnic table in the raised bed area.
The patient and grateful gardeners,
Victoria and Dennis Flanagan, co-ministry leaders of the St. James Community Garden