What progress!

Since my last post with pictures of the crew planting potatoes, I would say the entire garden is mostly planted, thanks to Jim and Jeff.  Each year we've tried a few new things and this year is no different.  In fact, instead of buying most of the plants, Jeff grew most of them from seed himself!  I'm excited to see how we do this year!

Planted in the garden this year are: 3 kinds of potatoes, onions, peas, green beans, radishes, 3 kinds of peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon and sweet corn.  Sounds like a lot!

Here are some updated views (it looks like I need to get weeding!)  Notice the difference in just a week!

I took these on May 17th...

The potatoes are up!

The onions are looking great!

I took these on May 24th. 

The potatoes are filling out!

Onions!

Jeff and Sam got everything ready for the corn to go in.  Doug E. came and got it planted!

Another great summer in the garden is well underway!!  Now the waiting begins.  Please pray for some great weather and for those that will be blessed by this ministry!  Thanks to everyone that makes this possible!  (We are always looking for new volunteers, so let us know if you'd like to help out!)

"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.  The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  No Other commandment is greater than these."

Mark 12:31

It's been a LOOOOONNNGGGG winter!

I found myself, like many others, wishing for warm temperatures and blue, sunny skies over the long winter.  The cold can be so discouraging, and it seemed almost unbearable to be outside to soak up any sunshine.  I would guess the cases of Seasonal Affective Disorder were pretty high this winter!  To try and hold the depressing thoughts at bay, I was looking at pictures from last year's garden.  It makes me happier just looking at them!  I can't wait for spring!
While in the kitchen at church a few Sundays ago, I found that the discussions we've been having over coffee the past few Sundays had moved past "discussions"!  Jeff has already started broccoli seeds and has little plants growing!  This made me smile, just knowing others are still as excited about this mission as I am!  If this winter had drug out any longer, we may all have little plants growing in our houses!

These pictures were from last fall when Jim had his tractor out and got the garden all tilled.

I took some pictures of the garden before we began this year….

What a beautiful patch of earth we are blessed with!

Since the threat of frost seems to be gone, we have started putting some things in the ground.  On Good Friday, we planted potatoes….a lot of potatoes!  Here are a few pictures from that afternoon.

Every row is carefully plotted, measured and aligned!

What a great work crew!

A few days later, we happened by and caught Jeff squeezing in a little extra work!

Once you get started, it's hard to stay away!  

I'm excited to see what this summer has in store for us.  We are planning to try some new things this year and it will be fun to see what works!  With the recent cuts in the federal food stamp program, the food pantry volunteers expect the requests for help to increase.  They have already had record numbers of visitors since the change. The clients and volunteers are so appreciative of the produce from the garden!  I hope we have a great year and I pray for God's blessings on the garden, those that give of their time to make the mission a success, and those that are in need.