To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
~ Gandhi ~
To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
~ Gandhi ~
Project Goldilocks
Project Goldilocks began with crossed fingers for the weather, which as you can see by the photos decided to be less than stellar. Undaunted, we grabbed our wheelbarrows, shovels, hammers and drills and got down to work. OSG had a core of seven volunteers and as we hoped, several of the families and staff members from the shelter joined us. We were particularly joyful to have children ask to participate. We showed them how to shovel the soil and plant and care for the herbs, giving them their own pots to plant as well. As day one drew to a close, we had accomplished quite a bit—the herb beds were complete, the raised bed half finished, the daylily and lavender bed completed, yet there was still so much to do. One of the mothers at the shelter took pictures from the building and as she thanked us for building this garden for them, she began to cry. She was amazed that a group of people would come out and do something like this for them and thankful that she was given the knowledge of how to make her own garden and grow food. We were all touched. This is why we do what we do—to give people hope and to nurture confidence.
Day two:
More rain! We finished the carpentry and filled the raised bed with topsoil donated from Cedar Grove—lovely, lovely soil. A few children joined us again as we planted rows of lettuce, spinach, melons, tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash. We installed drip irrigations in all the beds, planted herbs and strawberries in containers donated from Washington Pottery, and cleaned up our mess. We finished the day damp, dirty and weary, but very happy that this little garden was going to help a lot of women & children.
Update:
6/01/08
Our contact at the shelter tells us there are so many residents who want to work in the garden, they’ve had to organize a sign-up sheet so that everyone can have a turn. We recently participated in a spring clean-up and planting. Broadview has a need for more gloves & tools and some minor repairs to the raised bed. We’ve had tricky weather in the Northwest, which may delay the harvest, but the herb beds are filling in nicely and the families are participating in caring for the garden. We’re ecstatic that Project Goldilocks is a success!
Pictures from Project Goldilocks
Click Image to see larger picture.
