An East Stanford Neighborhood Garden Update

In 2015 Schweitzer Church made space for a neighborhood garden amidst the city. We had no idea how significant creating a garden would be. Yet we knew a garden is significant, in scripture we see that when God's kingdom touches earth, there is a renewal of the earth, and gardens exists, with plants that bring healing to the nations. The following is a report by garden coordinator Ken Bass. Ken writes beautifully about the garden experience of 2021. You can follow the garden on their Facebook page.

Here is Ken's report for 2021!

Planting in the Spring

Garden in Bloom

Gardening is all about finding faith in what the future holds. When Schweitzer Church started its neighborhood garden six years ago, it truly was all about faith. Schweitzer created this garden to promote, create, and maintain a sustainable green space to encourage community involvement in the Oak Grove neighborhood through gardening. So today I want to take time to reflect on what the garden has become. 

The garden currently has forty-two gardeners who grow produce for their own use. The East Stanford Neighborhood Garden, as we have named it, has grown to be the most successful and largest community garden in Springfield. Among these forty-two gardeners are Burmese refugees, an African immigrant, and neighbors from the Oak Grove area, quite an eclectic group, and the common language they speak is garden.

The variety of plants grown this year include cabbage, okra, carrots, turnips, bush beans, snake beans, long beans, peppers, squash, pumpkins, peanuts, roselle-Asian sour leaf,  bitter melon, sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes, mustard greens, peas, Swiss chard, ginger, lemon basil, beets, corn, cauliflower, onion, leeks, Pak choi, kale, celery, peppers, and parsnips. 

All total this year we have produced 4,977 pounds of  garden produce. This was accomplished in 77, 4 ft. by 12 ft. garden plots. One of our neighborhood gardeners produced over 650 lbs. from just two of these plots. Another has canned over 57 quarts of beans, as well as beets, corn, and other produce to sustain his family through the winter. Our Burmese gardeners have harvested enough sour plant, bitter melon,  and peppers to help feed their community thru the winter months.

Schweitzer Church is working in partnership with Springfield Community Gardens(SCG). SCG has provided our garden with a high tunnel, from which a group of 8 of our gardeners harvested 250 lbs. of sweet potatoes this past Saturday which were shared with all of our gardeners. Springfield Community gardens has also provided us with a greenhouse to help us start our own plants for next season. 

The one thing our garden lacks is volunteers. There are daily tasks that have to be completed to make sure the garden is a success. Do you like meeting new people and learning about other cultures? Do you like being outside in the fresh air? Do you like having flexible times you can volunteer, morning, mid-day, evening, the garden has a spot for you? Plans are being made for the next growing season. Now is the time to get involved.

It's Spring ... Time to Garden - East Stanford Neighborhood Garden

Five years ago Schweitzer UMC started a Neighborhood Garden. This video captures it's first year. In 2015 there were 36 plots, today it has 60+ plots. Additionally, in 2020 we're anticipating providing space for two urban farmers to conduct a pilot program in collaboration with the USDA. It is good to get outside and provide a space for people to connect and build a good and beautiful community.

Blackberry Patch . . . A Metaphor

Last weekend Pastor Bob Casady and I presented a sermon at Schweitzer UMC on the act of Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem. This is part of a sermon series through the Gospel of Mark.
To open the sermon we made a video of cleaning out a balckberry patch. Here is the link: http://vimeo.com/53041002

Pictures from the Garden

As fall sets in the garden is coming to a close.  Still growing and producing fruit are the tomato plants.  The pumpkins were orange and ready to be picked a month ago.  We have left them attached to their stem hoping that they could make it to All Hallow's Eve (Halloween).  We picked the last of the corn Labor Day weekend and enjoyed it with Will & Erin Cooper.   
I'm hopeful that the tractor will be finished in time to plow it down and get ready for next spring.  Harvest leads to planting and planting leads to harvesting. 

In the sweet corn

 

The girls liked to help husk the sweet corn

 

Aravis & Kyrie in the corn



Cutting Corn

This week the corn in the garden ripened.
The crop was excellent.
We ate a bunch, shared a bunch and froze a bunch.
Anna and I spent a few nights blanching it, cutting it off the cob and storing it in the freezer.
Something new for us.
The adventure of gardening has been blessed this year.
All praise to the Lord.
I'm ready to sing those ancient Thanksgiving songs.

A Garden Update

Last year we planted a garden.  It was a pitiful sight.
This year we tried again.  With different plans for this year.  First, we plowed he ground last fall.  Then we applied about 40 pounds of 12-12-12 fertilizer and about that much lime.  Then we used black plastic under our squash, tomato, pumpkin and tomato plants.  The black plastic is spectacular for keeping the weeds non-existent.  For the corn, we started with good seed.  Then along the way we added urea, three times.  Wow, the corn has grown.  In places it's 8 to 10 feet high.  Kind of surprising for sweet corn.  Also, many of the stalks have three ears on them.  The question we await -will it taste good? 
The squash and pumpkins have responded positively to the urea also.  The squash tastes great.  Finally,  we've been playing family life radio to encourage the animals to stay away.
All in all, it's been a much better experiment than last year.

Fields

The last couple of days I've been on the road.  First returning from CLC camp in Manton, then making a hospital visit yesterday in Saginaw.  On Thursday the fields I passed were hay fields, alfalfa and clover.  The second cutting was underway.  
Yesterday, I saw two planters in the field.  One planting a full field of soybeans, the other spot planting soys (that's what they call soybeans here). In most fields the corn is well above knee high, it will soon be shooting tassels.  The wheat has almost all turned golden brown.  I looked to see if anyone had combined wheat?  Not yet.  The combines were sitting in the barnyards, heads on, ready to go.  Next week, the harvest will begin. 

Why Garden?

Today I awoke and looked out the bathroom window to view the garden.  I noticed it had rained overnight and throughout this day it has been a mix of rain and sunshine.  Since putting nitrogen on and re-planting spots in the sweet corn patch I've found myself looking over to the garden, wondering if the nitrogen I put on the corn is going to help it along, wondering if I've put on too little, or too much.

As I spend this time noticing the garden along the way my mind also began to think about the investment resources in this garden:  gas for the tractor, plants, starter fertilizer, lime, nitrogen, gas for the lawnmower, time (lots of time).  Then I start thinking about how the garden can be improved, how its fertility can be upgraded.  It would be great to add a couple of inches of sand, a couple of inches of bio-mass (manure or something like it), a watering system.  A cultivator for the back of the tractor would be a great addition too.

Somewhere in this thought process a question arises that Jesus said we ought to ask, "what's it going to cost?"  (Jesus said we need to consider the cost of being a disciple before we throw in with him, it may cost us more than we're willing to pay.)  Maybe I'm wrong, but a cost-benefit analysis of the situation seems to reveal that the input prices can seldom be returned in the value of the produce itself.  Years ago I asked my mom why we were not growing peas anymore.  She said the cost of peas from the store always beat the time value of picking and shelling the peas from the garden.  As I add up all the costs of the garden, and notice all the investment of my neighbor who is a master gardener, I start to think, that could be true for almost every garden.

That is if the only return on investment is the fruit of the garden itself.  But there is more than the fruit we pick that is in the return column.  There's the challenge of seeing if something will grow out of a piece of dirt that has only grown weeds and grass.  There's the joy of organizing a plot of ground.  There's joy in seeing plants emerge from the soil, weather wind and rain and blistering sun.  There's joy in the sweat of the brow, in participating in and practicing the art of creation.  There's joy in knowing that all these efforts must be graced with mercy, for without God's care, these plants will not grow (the drought of Elijah).  There's joy in the serenity of air and time unmolested by the news of the world.  There's joy that while the garden takes time and effort, if we enter into prayer, the greater work may take place in the soil of our souls.

So we garden in anticipation of the fruit, the fruit we taste with our eyes, mouths and souls.

    

Prayer In the Garden

Thursday morning I was in the garden early putting nitrogen on the sweet corn.  I was out there before others in the house were up and I thought this might be something monks would find themselves working at, praying and gardening early in the morning.
Then my thoughts moved to prayer as I held the hoe in my hand. 
Two prayers came to mind
1 - Jesus bless this corn so our neighbors and we can enjoy it.  If it's not too much trouble can you keep the deer from it.  Can they find their nourishment on another patch? 
2 - Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Garden

Last night Moses, Aravis, Kyrie and I planted sweet corn in our garden and provided a nice feat for the mosquitoes. 
Today I read a story by Joel Belz (http://www.worldmag.com/) in which he quotes Martin Luther:  "Even if I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today."
When we think about our garden we're not overly hopeful of what it will produce, but we fell compelled to plant it none-the-less.  Compelled by hope that this year, with some fertilizer, with churning the ground differently, with a different planting method, will see improved results. 
Hope and Faith, the two tools of necessity for the garden shed.