Greetings:

Life is good in the Faith & Grace Garden: Vegetables are growing, gardeners are harvesting, and the weeds are under control.  Here are some pictures from the garden picnic last Friday.  Mark your calendars for the next garden picnic: Friday evening, July 26  This will be a very special thank-you to all the volunteers that have helped in the garden over the years!! Festivities are being planned…..

This garlic will be sold by the Entrepreneurial Studies class at
Dowling Catholic High School. Proceeds from the sale will be donated
to the food pantry.

See you in the garden!

Gardening now is in full swing! (Once the snow stops!!!)
Please come join us! Volunteer times are M/F, 6:30pm – 8:30pm and Saturday from 10:30am – Noon.

Here’s what is happening at the Faith & Grace Garden:

Cinco de Mayo in the Garden
Saturday, May 4 10:30am – 4pm
Music, dancing, refreshments, cooking demo and gardening. Children’s activities: piñata and garden seed games. Come celebrate the start of the growing season to a Latin beat!
In case of bad weather, our Cinco de Mayo celebration will move indoors to the Covenant Presbyterian Church at 1025 Ashworth Road (on the corner of 28th and Ashworth just west of the Garden) with the following rain or shine events:

Cooking demonstration  – Noon – 1 pm
Children’s activities – 1 pm – 2pm

Flower lovers! Plan to join us on this Saturday morning (rain or shine) at 11am at Covenant Presbyterian Church to learn about the design and planting of our new flower beds. Elvin McDonald will be on-hand to discuss our plans.

Edible Urban Garden Tour comes to the Faith & Grace Garden on Saturday, May 12 from 11am – 2pm. There will be a container garden demonstration and refreshments. Come to the parking lot north of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church at 1020 24th Street (on the corner of 24th and Ashworth just east of the Garden).

The Children’s Garden is about 70% completed with a surrounding wood fence and garden pathways covered with wood chips (shown in brown). Next we will put up a chicken wire fence to keep the critters out and put in the play area and the children’s garden plots.

Potatoes, peas, lettuce and spinach are planted and the salad bowl crops are about an inch tall. We would like to plant more onions and potatoes this week.

The high tunnel was finished on Sunday. The high tunnel covers a section of the garden soil (36’x20’) and absorbs the sun’s energy which in turn warms the ground. We can plant tomatoes and peppers in the high tunnel now despite the cool and wet weather fluctuations.
Special thanks to Dave Johnson for his expert assistance in erecting the tunnel!

44 blueberry bushes were planted on Saturday on the west side of the garden. Students from Dowling Catholic High School and Mark Marshall are shown digging all the holes.

Free to a Good Home – 250 gallon portable water tank
For details please contact Tim Goldman at 745-9842 or timothyjgoldman@gmail.com.

May Sarton

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.
Gardening is an instrument of grace. The garden door is always open to the holy.

Source: Gardening by Heart

Second Annual Food Pantry Garden “Its-Almost-Spring Meeting”

Covenant Presbyterian Church 28^th & Ashworth Road, WDM
Click here for Google Map
Sunday, February 17, 2pm – 5pm
Click Here to Add This Event to your Calendar

We’ll meet again to talk and to plan food pantry gardens. If you are involved in planning, operating or volunteering in a garden where substantially all produce feeds local poor and hungry people, this meeting is for you. Your garden may be on the land of a faith community, school, human service agency, or held privately. See detailed information about the meeting below.

There is no charge to attend this meeting. Early registration is encouraged to help with our meeting plans.
Click Here to Download the Registration Form Please email completed registration forms to: church@wdmcovenant.org
Please contact Tim Goldman with questions or for additional information at 515-745-9842 or timothyjgoldman@gmail.com

Welcome and Invocation	John Eft, Member, Covenant Presbyterian Church
Gardening in a Drought	Angela Tedesco, Turtle Farms (Retired) and Ray Meylor, Izaac Walton League, Discussion LeadersThis will be an opportunity to exchange ideas about how to plan and maintain a garden during times of drought. Our discussion leaders will bring their ideas to share. Please bring yours and plan to join into this lively discussion.
Education in the Garden	Faculty from Dowling Catholic High School will talk about their partnership with the Faith & Grace Garden where students provide >60% of the volunteer garden labor while learning about biology, environmental science, business, and social responsibility.
Trees Forever – Fruit Tree Program	Leslie Berckes, Program Manager & Field Coordinator , Trees Forever Leslie will provide us with an overview of the Trees Forever Fruit Tree Program and their plans for growing season 2013.  Many volunteers came to the new tree planting last October 20th. Trees were provided through the TREES 4-EVER program. Pastor Jan Scott blessed the new trees.
The Okra Project	Elvin McDonald, Author and HorticulturistElvin is writing a book about the joys of okra. This underappreciated vegetable, flower, and delectable addition to soups and recipes is drought resistant and deserves a place in your garden. Elvin will tell us about the Okra Project.
The Refugee Garden Project	A representative from Lutheran Services in Iowa will discuss their program to connect refugee growers to garden plots.
Garden Seed Order	Mark Marshall will review the garden seed orders, answer your questions about the order, and maybe ask you a question about your order. We want to use this time to make sure we place your correctly.
Closing and Social Time	John Eft, Member, Covenant Presbyterian Church

Since it’s still officially winter, just for the fun of it, sit back and enjoy a few videos and dream from our friends at The Lord’s Acre: 

Want to see how to grow 6,000 lbs of Food on 1/10 Acre? This 8 minute video features the Dervaes family in California. A family of four, they grow close to all their own food plus more to sell on, yes – 1/10 acre. Granted it’s California but hey – just think what our yards could produce.

Check out: A Growing Vision (13 min) – a documentary about urban farming and the future of localization –  by clicking here. 

Here are two videos – ONE and TWO – on growing food instead of lawns and ways people can make a living doing so. Food Not Lawns. Particularly fun to think about if you have followed the antics of the West Des Moines City Council lately….

A Transition Farm in NC: (9 min) can be seen by clicking here.

You Can’t Eat Grass (3 min) is viewed here. 

What COULD Backyard Sustainability Look Like? Growing food at a rental home: (25 min)

For those who are just getting started and who appreciate a method where there is no guess work – Square Foot Gardening 101 fits the bill. There is also a popular book by the same name and numerous webpages devoted to this method. – (10 min)

Little space? No space? Renting? Check out the 5-Gallon Bucket Garden (3 min) here. 

More Buckets: Self Watering Buckets (7 min) – a video that explains how to make your own.

There are hundreds of ways to start your own seeds indoors. We’ve found several videos to get you started. Check here and here and here for ideas.

To take advantage of bulk pricing for your food pantry garden seeds, please complete and return the attached garden seed order form. Special note: These seeds are all non GMO.
Click here to Download the Form As PDF
Click here to Download the Form As DOCX

Faith and Grace Garden
Last week 25 neighbors and friends gathered to plant 16 trees, including apples, pears, plums, paw-paw and hazelnuts. After a few growing seasons the trees will provide fresh fruit and shade for years to come. For more information contact Tim at timothyjgoldman@gmail.com or call 745-9842 or contact Mark at wdmmarshall@msn.com or call 988-5381.

Hello Garden Friends:

Cool evenings and sunny afternoons are wonderful times to be in the food pantry gardens. Many gardens have second crops of peas, spinach, mustard, turnips, beets and lettuce coming up.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli and potatoes are still strong producers.

Some of us are looking forward to planting garlic soon.

Here’s what’s happening is a garden near you:Here’s what is happening in a food pantry garden near you……..

Agape Garden, 7384 NW 16^th Street in Ankeny (Next to the Faith Chapel and close by John Deere)

Over 11,000 pounds donated so far this year!!  The garden is still producing over 500 pounds per week. We need your help Next Tuesday to harvest tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, brussel sprouts, broccoli and we have more potatoes to dig.

Volunteer hours in the Agape garden are almost every Tuesday and Thursday evenings around 6:30 and Saturdays from 8 am until Noon. Call Craig Crist to verify time and dates @ 515-577-8260 leave message if no answer. The Agape Garden always needs help.

Faith & Grace Garden.  Between 24^th & 28^th Streets north of Ashworth Road, WDM, between Covenant Presbyterian Church and St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, park in the lot north of St. Timothy’s off 24^th Street.

Garden picnic planned for next Friday, September 14. Bring the whole family there are activities for children of all ages! Here’s the schedule:
6 pm or so – Potluck – Bring a side dish or something from the deli and table service. There are picnic tables but you might bring a lawn chair, too.

7 pm or so – Gardening – We will start with a mini-tour so everyone gets familiar with the garden and knows where to find the restrooms, water fountain and first aid kit (we have not needed it yet). The picnic area, garden and playground are in close proximity of each other so pretty easy to watch the children.

7:45 pm or so – For those that want to, we gather at one end of the garden for a brief closing prayer before heading home.

Special Note, mark your calendar: Harvest Celebration – Saturday, October 20 from 9am – Noon. Fruit and nut tree plantings with refreshments served at Covenant Presbyterian (on west side of garden).

Below are harvest totals through early September for the Faith & Grace Garden for this year compared to last year.

Units in Lbs (except corn)	2011			2012
Peas	300		Peas	140
Bush Beans	967		Bush Beans	389
Pole Beans	86		Pole Beans	0
Broccolli	106		Broccolli	67
Cabbage	0		Cabbage	146
Caulifower	0		Caulifower	45
Cucumbers	48		Cucumbers	42
Lettuce/Chard	76		Lettuce/Chard	168
Spinach	70		Kale	20
Onions	113		Onions	861
Tomatoes	1,274		Tomatoes	931
Peppers	92		Peppers	179
Honey Dew Melons	0		Purslane	425
Cantaloupe	98		Cantaloupe	208
Water melon	47		Water melon	1,493
Zucchini	360		Zucchini	155
Red Potatoes	295		Potatoes	1,175
White Potatoes	313		Pumpkins	0
Radishes	30		Radishes	83
Turnips	0		Turnips	203
Sweet Potatoes	0		Sweet Potatoes	525
Carrots	72		Carrots	0
Eggplant	149		Eggplant	2
Beets	7		Beets	0
Tl harvested through Sep 2	4,503		Tl harvested through Sep 5	7,257
Corn (dozens)	97		Corn (dozens)	101

Fundraiser for mission to El Salvador.  If you like to have a delicious dinner before heading to the garden on this Wednesday night, stop by Covenant Presbyterian Church to enjoy authentic El Salvador pupusas (tortillas filled with pork & cheese, beans & cheese or just cheese), and casaminto (rice & bean dish). Meal includes fruits and beverages. All donations for meal to support Covenant’s 2012 delegation trip in September to re-visit and support the 48 families in their partner village of San Isidro, El Salvador.

For more information, please see attached flyer.

St. Anthony’s Garden of Eden  An estimated 1,200 pounds of vegetables harvested so far: Peppers of several varieties, Onions, Radishes, Potatoes and Tomatoes. Okra is about a week away. Tomatoes are just now coming in volume.

Here’s the hot news……John Piper says, “I have a new volunteer in the garden. Marie Garneau and I are planning to marry on November 24, 2012 at 2 PM at St. Anthony Church. I am feeling much better each day. The surgeon said six months after the operation my heart should be as strong as 10 years ago.” Congratulations, John!!

For information about the Garden of Eden, please contact John at comphelp@ecity.net or by calling 515-240-3146.

St Francis of Assisi Garden The garden is located across the street to the North, from St Francis of Assisi church in the North-east corner of the playground. Gardening every Sunday evening. For more information, contact Jan Hoeman atJanhoeman@mchsi.com.

Urban Harvest Garden – An outreach of Urban Heights Covenant benefitting the Urbandale/Windsor Heights Food Pantry 7605 Aurora, Urbandale, Iowa  278-1371

For information and best times to garden, please email garden manager Beth Rydberg at  brydberg@mchsi.com or by calling at 314-2114.

Here’s a great site  to help you tell if the melons you’re growing or picking are ripe. 

 

Becoming Better Off

Peter Maurin

The world would be better off if people tried to become better. And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off. For when everybody tries to become better off, nobody is better off. But when everybody tries to become better, everybody is better off.

Everybody would be rich if nobody tried to become richer. And nobody would be poor if everybody tried to be the poorest. And everybody would be what he ought to be if everybody tried to be what he wants the other fellow to be.

Source: The Catholic Worker

See you in the garden,

Tim