A LEARNING GARDEN IS WHERE TOGETHER WE EXPLORE HOW TO BE STEWARDS OF GOD’S GOODNESS.
By Brad Bloom
After summer comes autumn the time to get the garden ready for winter. It can’t be all grow – grow – grow… To be a good steward of not only the land but also your time, resources and personal wellness you need to care for the space God has given you. When people think of gardening they think of planting, growing and harvesting. But like our own physical life, there’s another really important part of the cycle — REST.
We’ve had a great season of young children, families and adults 50 and older in our local communities learning the joys of gardening. It’s always a great time of interaction with the earth and with each other. To practice active stewardship we must not only be diligent in the daily work of gardening but even more so in the relationships we have with others. Harvest is a special time to celebrate the incredible flavors and nutrition of freshly harvested produce and the near conclusion of the summer’s hard work.
Earlier this year we installed for the first time ever a drip irrigation system. Volunteers came together to stretch the lines, make the connections and be the first to see this really cool and highly efficient system in use. Drip irrigation is a great way to assure your plants get all the water they need while also being a good steward of this important and often limited resource. It’s actually a fertigation system, which means that fertilizer can be administered directly through the drip water lines. The results have been bountiful.
Now we’re into the season to once again invite volunteers to be part of the learning garden and enjoy the easy activities of putting the light weight irrigation lines into storage. When community members come together to prepare the soil for rest, good things happen. A learning garden is more than a garden – it is a place where together as a community we can explore the many ways God wants us to be stewards of all his goodness.
No special skills necessary, no equipment required. Just bring a smile and a phone to snap a group selfie or two. We’ll finish with a time for volunteers to come together, eat fresh watermelon harvested directly from the garden, sipping hot apple cider and enjoy some relaxed fellowship together in the great outdoors.
For more information and to be a part of this volunteer opportunity CONTACT US.
