Here in The Lord’s Acre, we work with real communities, real learning, and real food to educate locally and healthfully. In the next year, we seek to expand into programming for volunteers to intentionally demonstrate a garden grown by the community, for the community. With “demonstration garden” and “kid’s garden” areas already designated, we would like to develop a program that enables us to develop those areas and the rest of the garden into a community resource for anyone interested in growing food for themselves or others in need.

The development of our ‘Kid’s Garden’ is an excellent example of building a foundation for serving as an educational resource for all ages.

When the garden staff looks around the garden we see an incredible amount of growth that has taken place this year. Many were building projects that Steve took on – four square foot raised beds, a new information kiosk, a fence for the children’s garden and a new wash table. While doubling the size of the garden, we have also developed ways to make it work more efficiently including the use of greenhouse groundcover, shade cloth, mulching in place and experimenting with ways of no-till. In the “summer slump” we’ve been harvesting tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, cukes, yellow squash, zucchini and field peas.

Freesia and Mallika, our summer interns will be leaving this weekend to go back to school. I can’t tell you how much we’ll miss them. Both women were joyful to be around and have made for a beautiful ‘family’ at our house. We all know that one wrong intern can make for a miserable experience and we’ve been blessed. To know how far our garden reaches, you’d have to also look into our home. We’ve gotten to know the friends and boyfriends of these women and in that way alone, this garden has inspired many to “take up the hoe” and they have inspired us to work for this next generation. Don’t be surprised if Kelley and I can’t keep up with the weeds when they are gone. Next year, we will use more greenhouse fabric (with a 20-year life) to control weeds wherever we can.

Warren Wilson came out today for another preliminary visit for their Freshman workday next week and you could see the faces of the students and staff light up when they toured the garden. They were beaming and exclaiming how inspired they were to go home and “grow something” or resurrect their gardens. It is a beautiful sight to see. Know that the work each of you does and the donations you contribute is not only helping feed those hungry for food, but also those hungry to see beauty in social justice, the love of Christ, and hungry for a connection to the earth, their food, and their community.