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Week 12: The Joy of Gardening

  • November 17, 2021
  • Posted by: William Hurtado
  • Category: Adventure Days
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When we arrived at The Center Community Garden, the winds were blowing and the Sun was shining bright. Marilyn, the garden coordinator, already had dirt under her fingernails and was eager to get started with collecting the bags of leaves and showing the kids how to prepare them to make leaf mold. They had to use the pitchforks to poke holes in them.

[su_image_carousel source=”media: 12267,12255,12257,12256,12254″] This would allow air to circulate through the bags. Then they were moved to a storage area behind the big hedge that we have a picture of the kids climbing. We counted up the total number of bags that everyone had raked and brought to donate to the center. Our group total was 13 bags.

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Marilyn then took us on a tour of the garden. The kids got to taste arugula, celery and discovered that there was purple cauliflower and quite a few tomatoes still growing, even in November. There were two archways in the garden and she explained that one was a trellis for cucumbers and the other was a trellis for green beans and they created a nice shady place in the summer. Garden produce is harvested and most of it weighed throughout the season. Marilyn estimated the total poundage that was grown for this growing season will be near one and a half tons. Garden volunteers pick from the garden and use the produce but most of it is distributed to families from the community that come in need of food.

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Maryland then took us on a tour of the inside of the center, and explained the process of distributing food boxes and clothing to needy families that go through the drive-thru system and also homeless who come to the walk-up window.
While indoors, we made a stop in the lunchroom, where the kids ate their lunches. Marilyn explained the story of one key garden volunteer named Fernando. He built the covered hoop house where the tomatoes are growing, and has a dramatic conversion story. It was the volunteering at garden at the Center that began his journey to Christ. Then she explained how the leaves would be used at the Garden to create compost and to cover the garden beds. She sent each family home with the pocketbook on how to compost at home and all the benefits of making and using compost in our Gardens.

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Our final stop was the composting area at the center. Maryland showed us how to add kitchen scraps and some of the leaves we had donated to the compost bin. Then from the bottom of the bin she dug out some compost that was ready to use and let the kids feel it and see what the final product looked like. In the end, Adventure Days brought discovery and joy to our family gardeners! Thank you Marilyn for making this day special.

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