Church hosts garden party
That's why, when she came across a flyer about a community garden at nearby Redeemer Lutheran Church, which was looking for volunteers, she jumped at the opportunity to get involved.
"I'd gardened before in Nova Scotia, but it was mostly flower gardening," she told The Villager.
Since being involved with the community garden at the local church for little over a year, it has become both lessons in vegetable gardening and an excuse to get together with friends.
The community garden was created four years ago when congregation members decided to take advantage of the church's extra land by sharing it with the neighbourhood. Once the land had been transformed into a garden, the vegetables were then donated to the Stop Community Food Centre on Davenport Road.
The garden produced 400 pounds of food last year, according to Yates. Produce such as kale, tomatoes, garlic, butternut squash, herbs and peppers.
A committee of six community volunteers has been meeting this winter to plan an even better garden for 2008. It has decided to broaden its appeal and call for even more community volunteers with a new name "The Garden Party at Redeemer Lutheran".
After all, the fun of the community vegetable garden are the perennial garden parties which take place during the summer and early fall. "Last year, we were particularly proud of our garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, butternut squash and kale vegetable donations," Yates said.
In planning this year's crop, the group consulted the Stop to find out what it needed for their kitchen.
On April 12, between 10 a.m. and noon, there will be an information session at Redeemer Lutheran Church for community volunteers who are interested in growing vegetables for the Stop Community Food Centre.
If you would like to hear more about the garden, contact Audrey Yates at 647-340-0069. The Garden Party at Redeemer Lutheran is located at 1691 Bloor Street West at Bloor and Keele.
