Levy Community Garden

Dream Big, Start Small. A few years ago while looking for different ways for our church to connect with the community I came across a number of urban gardening and community garden sites. I thought this was a good fit with what we were trying to do.
A community garden would in addition to helping provide healthy vegetables it could serve as a bridge between the church and the neighborhood giving opportunities to form relationships in a non-churchy atmosphere. We had even picked out a spot and began making plans to turn a piece of land adjacent to the parking lot behind our building into a huge garden (I think we estimated that there was room for about 90 4 x 8 plots).
Alas before we got very far in our planning the land was paved for expanded church parking. But I've never been able to get the idea of a garden out of my head, so I've continued to talk about it and look for the right opportunity. That opportunity has arrived.

Thanks to the work of Graham Sutherlin, Patrick Bewley and Ted Bowsman this past Saturday in some sloppy weather the Levy Church of Christ Community Garden is up and growing. Besides the tending of the garden plots there is still quite a bit of landscaping type work to do, but it's a start.

The garden is located in a lot beside the church on the north side of Martin Drive. We decided to start small this time. There are 8 4 x 8 raised bed garden plots. 6 of the 8 plots have been assigned. We're sharing one with my daughters and Son-in-law, the women's ministry has one, the Sutherlin's home school group has one, Roberto one of our hispanic brothers has one, Jan the lady that lives next to the garden has one and the Huffs are partnering with Elena (a lady that was reached last year during the Levy campaign).

The lot that it is on was purchased to build another senior citizen home. A number of the lots on this street have over the years benn bought and duplexes built for senior members of our church. Because of economic conditions (I believe) a house hasn't been built here yet, so we know that this might only be a temporary home for the garden. Our hope is that the garden will become such an integral part of the neighborhood and our work with the community that it will be decided that it is the best use of the land. But if not we'll just look for another spot when that happens (can't really get upset about being bumped by housing for senior Christians).

I'll keep you posted on our progress.