Serving Hands Donates $5,000 to the Faith & Grace Garden for the purchase of a tractor trailer

Jan Stegeman of Serving Hands presented a check for $5,000 to Mark Marshall and Tim Goldman of the Faith and Grace Garden on Friday for the purchase of a tractor trailer.

Serving Hands, Inc. is a non-denominational, not-for-profit Iowa corporation dedicated to helping Iowans who are struggling to support themselves and their families. Serving Hands, Inc. is a public charity funded by individual and corporate sponsors and is run by volunteers. Established in December 2018, they provide meals to emergency shelters; supplies personal hygiene products, laundry and cleaning supplies to food pantries and shelters; and give financial support for specific needs.

The new trailer will allow the garden tractor to be used to help other donation gardens, refugee gardens, and school gardens with heavy tasks.

New Volunteer Times and Dates to Beat the Heat!!
We have changed our volunteer times to 8:30-10:30am and volunteer days to Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We have discontinued volunteering in the evenings.
To volunteer in the garden, please sign-up here.

Why sign-up? It helps us to plan our activities and to communicate with you, especially when the weather looks bad and we need to cancel.
There are also opportunities to volunteer in the garden by appointment, contact Mark Marshall at 988-5381 or wdmmarshall@msn.com to arrange a convenient time.
Bring garden gloves if you have them. Gloves are also available at the garden if you do not have them.
Volunteers should dress for the weather and wear hard-soled shoes. Hats, sunscreen, and water bottles are also good ideas.

If you cannot volunteer your time, consider a financial donation to continue this important work. Send your check to St. Timothy’s, 1020 24th Street, West Des Moines, IA, 50266. Please note Faith & Grace Garden in the memo line or go here to donate online: https://www.growthefood.org/donate/

What’s growing in the Faith & Grace Garden:

The following plants will be row planted from seed into the garden this year: radishes, turnips, mustard, and beets.
Asparagus and blueberries are growing in established beds now. We will harvest  blueberries this month.

Garlic scapes available for pick-up.

Scapes are the stem and the seed head of the garlic plant. They have a more mild garlic flavor and are good in many recipes. We like to toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper and throw them on the grill or to use them in a pesto.

We detached the scapes from our garlic earlier this week and have plenty to give away. If you would like to try some please text Mark Marshall at 515-988-5381 to arrange a convenient pick-up time.

For more information about the Faith & Grace Garden contact:

Mark Marshall: 515-988-5381 wdmmarshall@msn.com
Tim Goldman: 515-745-9842 timothyjgoldman@gmail.com

2020 – Celebrating 20 Years of Feeding the Hungry

Many of you are new friends of the Garden. Here is a summary of what we do.
The Faith & Grace Garden is a 1.1 acre donation garden, meaning all of the 20,000 pounds of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables we grew last year were donated to local food pantries.  The Faith & Grace Garden Greenhouse is a 48’x26’ all season structure where about 40,000 vegetable starts are grown each year. Garden partner Lutheran Services raises about 30,000 of these plants as part of their Global Greens Program.

The Master Gardeners grow about 2,000 flower and vegetable plants in the greenhouse for their community gardens. We give about 5,000 vegetable plants to 12 other local school and donation gardens. The remaining vegetable plants are either set out into the Faith & Grace Garden or given to the local community through annual plant giveaways in April and May.
Vegetable Giveaway extended to this weekend……

Many thanks to the students of Waukee High School for volunteering in the garden last week.
Last Wednesday 28 students from Waukee High School helped spread mulch over weed cover in the cabbage patch. About 800 plants are now growing there.

Garden volunteer Joe Van Derask prepared seed potatoes for planting in April. We will plant more cabbages between the potato hills.

What’s growing in the Faith & Grace Garden:

The following plants will be row planted from seed into the garden this year: radishes, turnips, spinach, lettuce, and beets. Asparagus and blueberries are growing in established beds now. We will harvest asparagus this month and blueberries in June.
As you can see, May is a busy month in the garden…can you help? Become a garden volunteer! Volunteer times in the garden are as follows:

To volunteer in the garden, please sign-up here.
Why sign-up? It helps us to plan our activities and to communicate with you, especially when the weather looks bad and we need to cancel.There are also opportunities to volunteer in the garden by appointment, contact Mark Marshall at 988-5381 or wdmmarshall@msn.com to arrange a convenient time.gloves if you have them. Gloves are also available at the garden if you do not have them. Volunteers should dress for the weather, wear hard soled shoes, and bring garden them.
If you cannot volunteer your time, consider a financial donation to continue this important work. Send your check to St. Timothy’s, 1020 24th Street, West Des Moines, IA, 50266. Please note Faith & Grace Garden in the memo line.

The Faith + Grace Garden has an abundance of cool weather starter plants to share!
Kale, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, lettuce, and spinach!  Free (donations accepted)
Come to the Garden Green House on Saturday, April 2, 9 AM- Noon | Sunday, April 3, 11:30 AM-12:30 PM for the giveaway.
Parking is in the lot north of St Timothy’s.

Tim Goldman 515-745-9842 | timothyjgoldman@gmail.com
Mark Marshall 515-988-5381 | wdmmarshall@msn.com

Hello Garden Friends,

We are having a Great Year in the Garden!!

Last year we grew and donated a near record 16,300 pounds of organic produce. This year we are doing even better. How much better? Well, as of August 12, 2020, we had donated 4,200 pounds. This year, as of August 13 we have donated 7,600 pounds!

We came to the garden on Monday and there it was…A big thank you to the anonymous donor of this new wheelbarrow!

Name that Vegetable Contest….no one guessed correctly this year
Our mystery vegetable was a giallo squash. It originates in Italy. We tried the ‘monster’ variety which regularly grows to over 5 pounds. This one weighed nearly 45 pounds!

Watering and harvesting…can you help?

Volunteer times in the garden are as follows:

To volunteer in the garden, please sign-up at:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4AA9A82EA6F58-faith

Why sign-up? It helps us to plan our activities and to communicate, especially when the weather looks bad and we need to cancel.

There are also opportunities to volunteer in the garden by appointment, contact Mark Marshall at 988-5381 or wdmmarshall@msn.com to arrange a convenient time.

We ask that volunteers coming to the garden observe the CDC’s guidelines. If you are not fully vaccinated and wish to volunteer, please let us know and we will arrange to make your time in the garden safe for all.

As always, volunteers should dress for the weather, wear hard soled shoes, and bring garden gloves if you have them. Gloves are also available at the garden if you do not have them.

If you cannot volunteer your time, consider a financial donation to continue this important work. Send your check to St. Timothy’s, 1020 24th Street, West Des Moines, IA, 50266. Please note Faith & Grace Garden in the memo line.

Here are harvest and donation results through August 21