A new way to garden

POLSON - Instead of relying on donations for food, soup kitchens and food banks will receive produce straight from the ground.

Last Friday morning, more than 30 people volunteered their time to help plant a community garden. The garden, located next to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, will produce food for the local soup kitchen as well as the local food bank. Master gardener Kelly Ware, of the Aware Wellness Center, educated volunteers on the type of garden they wanted to create. This will be a no-dig, no-till garden.

"This is a weed-free, don't break-your-back style of gardening," Ware said.

By using a permaculture straw bed and lasagna gardening, a lot of the usual labor associated with gardening can be avoided. In permaculture gardening, the plants are planted directly into straw, which is placed over manure and other soil nutrients. Much like a lasagna, a lasagna garden is made up of several layers. Newspapers, cardboard, straw, bone meal and blood meal are layered on top of one another. Over time these materials break down, creating nutrient-rich soil.

"Every fall, we're going to ask everybody to bring their leaves here and we're going to keep adding," Ware said.

Almost all of the products used to create this community garden were either donated or offered at discounted prices.

The garden will contain tomatoes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, potatoes and other assorted salad greens. The greens could be ready as soon as two weeks from now.

"Tomatoes are on the vine," Ware said.

If anyone in the community would like to help out, contributions of potting soil, compost, newspaper and cardboard (non-glossies), as well as soil nutrients, and plant starters would be greatly appreciated, Ware said. Donations can be sent to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.

A total of 33 people, "the magic number," as Ware called it, helped out. Thirty-three is a number commonly associated with Jesus, as it was the year of his crucifixion, resurrection to earth and ascension into heaven.

"It's nice when there are many hands," Ware said.

Over half of the volunteers present were fifth and sixth graders from the Ecumenical Vacation Bible Camp.

The camp, which had a mixture of kids from the Methodist, Good Shepherd Lutheran, Presbyterian and the Episcopal churches, introduced many kids to missionary work. Mark Calhoun, pastor of the Methodist Church, took the kids out on several excursions where they learned about various programs in their community.

"With the older kids, we're working on developing a sense of social justice, looking out for other people," Calhoun said.

On Monday, the kids learned about environmental justice by picking up trash along a bike path. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids took a tour of the food pantry and the soup kitchen, where they learned about the services these programs provide. Thursday, the kids shopped at the grocery store for Vital Vittles. Their work at the community garden rounded out the kids' week of volunteer service.

"It gets them out and it gets them a little more active," Calhoun said.

"They've been an awesome help," Ware said. "I never could have done all this on my own."