Community Garden
The North Chapel established a permaculture garden in the space between the church office and the parsonage in 2014. It is thriving today thanks to the committed volunteers.
Permaculture Garden Update – September 2015
The Third Grade and their teachers from Woodstock Elementary School visited the permaculture garden last Thursday. They will be working with us this fall to integrate permaculture into the WES curriculum. You will be hearing more about this wonderful collaboration in weeks to come.
The garden is completing its second season.
It is productive and beautiful
And has surpassed all our expectations.
Thank you to Kathy Fiske for creating 125 plant markers.
Now garden admirers will know what they are looking at.
Last week we added another garden section behind the church with the help of the fantastic Change the World Kids. This garden includes honeyberry bushes and Hazelburt nut trees and was added to the Raisin Viburnum
we put in during the Spring Sheet mulching workshop.
The other backyard garden (to the left of the pizza oven) has been providing basil, rosemary, tarragon, parsley, eggplant and peppers for our Wednesday night community pizza dinners.
In the upper garden we have begun harvesting for medicinal
teas and doing general maintenance.
The Alpine strawberries are producing lots of berries. Come sample one when you
get a chance. Nothing beats a warmed-by-the-sun strawberry.
The Permaculture Garden was dedicated to Daniel Jantos on June 27th 2015
We have invited the Woodstock Elementary School to collaborate with us as we attempt to educate the wider community about the importance and benefits of Permaculture. Principal Karen White and three of the WES teachers came to the garden in August and brainstormed with us about how they might integrate Permaculture into their curriculum. The teachers have decided to begin with the third grade since the third grade teacher loves to get her students into the “outdoor classroom”. Two groups of third graders will come learn about the garden on Thursday, September 3rd.
You will be hearing more about this exciting project once we get it launched.
A Garden Update from Anne Dean – July 2015
2014
2015 Can you see the difference?
Without fail, every time I am in the garden someone walks by and comments on how wonderful it looks. Many ask. “What are you doing?” “What is Permaculture?”
Sarah Hall and I have given dozens of impromptu “tutorials” to these curious community members, and we are pleased that knowledge about the importance of this kind of gardening – called “the farming of the future” – is spreading among members of the community who happen to pass by.
We have had a very busy spring dividing plants, weeding and mulching. We also had successful workshops in Designing your own Permaculture Garden, Dividing and Transplanting Perennials in the Garden, and sheet mulching.
Have you noticed the new garden in the back of the church to the left of the pizza oven? The Change the World Kids were instrumental in helping to get this done.
In a few hours we had planted six berry bushes and sheet mulched the whole thing!! Thank you Lauren, Ted, Sam and Amalia! Veggies and herbs have been added in hopes of offering food for the Wednesday night pizzas.
Thank you to Buildings and Grounds for their encouragement and enthusiasm about this project, Thank you to Kathy Fiske for printing 125 beautiful labels and Thank you to all of you who have helped us get this far.
We are already starting to harvest mint, sorrel, chamomile, red currants, strawberries and anise hyssop, and we need some help with this.
Sarah and I will be there every Wednesday at 3:30 PM and we will be happy to see you and to give you a job (working in the garden or sitting in the shade sorting the harvest.
This fall we plan to do another sheet mulching workshop and, hopefully, a Shitake Mushroom workshop.
So stay tuned for upcoming events and join us on Wednesday Afternoons.
xo Anne and Sarah
p.s. On June 27th, we dedicated the garden to Daniel.
Last updated on August 2, 2020
