Eco Anecdotes: Gardening for the Community

A series which shares stories of churches, organizations, and individuals going green

Gardening for the Community

Many of us have heard of the concept of community gardening, where people from the community rent a plot in a piece of land that has been set aside for gardening purposes.  These gardeners then tend their plots, often for fruits and vegetables.  Presbyterian Church of the Covenant (PCC) in Costa Mesa, California has put their own unique spin on the community gardening model.  The church decided to take advantage of unused space on their grounds that had previously been occupied by bushes, ground cover, some weeds, and in some places just plain dirt.  These spaces surrounded their parking lot and were meant to be decorative and attract people to the church.  The church decided that they could make much better use of this space by putting a garden in instead.  So, this last fall they ripped out the worthless (supposedly) decorative plants in these areas to pursue this goal.  This was not without its challenges of course.  Having been neglected and untouched for years and years the dirt was hard and the roots ran deep.  Garbage was found in the bushes and under the ground.  Countless hours went into removing roots, rocks, trash, bottles, 2x4s, concrete, and more to prep the ground for the new garden.

Come September a crew of 40 church members (PCC only has 200 some people at their worship services every week) got to work.  The land had been divided into separate plots which were adopted by these volunteers.  They began tilling, planting, and caring for their entirely organic, fruit and vegetable gardens.  A large variety of plants were to be found on the church property:  various onions, peppers, squash, zucchini, fava beans, all sorts of lettuce, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, tomatoes, carrots, corn, and even cactus.  A few weeks latter the harvesting began.  God blessed this ministry abundantly as can be seen from some of the harvests below.

Perhaps this sounds interesting but you may be asking yourself what is green about this and why is it unique.  First:  why is it green?  The garden is entirely organic.  No chemical fertilizers, bug sprays, or weed killers have been used in the process.  Also, it is local.  None of the food is being transported more than one mile to reach its final destination.  That cuts down significantly on the footprint of this produce compared to food that is shipped from other states or countries.  Additionally, the composter they set up out of old pallets provides a good place to dispose of produce that is bad or falls off the plant and other organic matter.  The coffee grounds from the church are even being added in.  It will also provide a great alternative to fertilizer when the compost is ready to go.

So, what is unique?  The unique piece of this community garden is that it is a garden for the community.  The volunteers are from the church but those who eat the produce are poor members of the community.  Presbyterian Church of the Covenant has found a way to merge its efforts to care for God’s creation and its mission to serve its local community.  Eco-justice and mission not only co-exist but work together to serve God and the world.  The church, which already helps feed some 40 families each month, is now able to provide several of those families with fresh, organic, local produce grown with love.  The response has been impressive.  Recipients have been amazed that someone could love them so much that they would go through all the effort to care for them in this unique way.

That said, this project has not been without challenges.  As noted above, it was difficult to get the project started.  There were many hurdles to getting started and clearing the ground.  Of course, this challenge goes away with subsequent seasons.  There has also been the challenge of ensuring that food is picked when it is ripe (not before but certainly not after) and getting it delivered to the families in a prompt manner.  They even had a plastic composting bin stolen from the church property.  The unbelievable thing was that there was actually organic matter rotting inside when it was taken!  Finally, it is a big demand of volunteers to till, plant, care for, and harvest over this extended period of time.  Of course, it is this dedication that truly shows the love of Christ in action.

A fair amount of blood, a lot of sweat, and even a few tears went into this work.  It has proved to be both green and part of the church’s mission.  What a great for a church to go green!

Have you or your church done something similar?  What do you think of this effort?  Please comment and share your thoughts with the Creation Hope community.

Do you know the story of a church, organization, or individual going green?  Email it to us and we will share it in a future post in our Eco Anecdotes series.

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Welcome to Creation Hope

Disclaimer: I have been a key part of the conceptualization and implementation of this project.

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