Friday, October 4, 2013

Week of September 29

Welcome!

Last fall those of us involved in the UALC Community Garden made a point of praying each day for a month to see what God’s will was for the garden—what he wanted us to add, take away, do differently. He blessed us richly with insights that turned into wonderful improvements (but what else would you expect from God?)

We are doing the same thing this year, and invite you to do the same.

We ask that you pray about the garden each day through November 2, and that write whatever God shows as a comment to the most recent post on this blog. No topic is out of bounds, and we’re very eager to see what God shows us.

Thank you & thank God for all he does for us!

1 comment:

anon said...

Overall, I get the impression that we should focus on making the highest and best use of what God has already given us, like the good and faithful servants in Matthew 25:14-30. That includes—but is in no way limited to—growing more and better vegetables

So Far God has shown the following specific ways we might do so:

Beauty:

Interplanting different colored crops within beds to form pleasing patterns

Plant the beds on the inside of the fence densely with rainbow Swiss chard

Plant the last foot or two of each bed that borders the interior aisle with densely spaced Swiss chard of the same color as a highlight. This would also protect the vertical pipes of the irrigation system

Come up w/ a shaded area, perhaps an arbor or trellis

Education/edification:

Combined Bible study/gardening classes in the winter

Classes re cooking & preserving (canning etc.) the crops we grow

Better prayer path signs, perhaps in a black or white board format so the prayer emphasis can be changed on a regular basis.

Guest bloggers on our main blog

Guest teachers for our Saturday AM Bible studies

Production:

Placing narrow beds all around the outside of the fence, like we do now w/ the north (Church) side of the fence now. Start w/ radishes or Tokyo Cross turnips in the spring, flip to stuff the rabbits won’t bother for the summer (egg plant, cherry tomatoes, peppers), flip to greens in the fall so we have both production & a cover crop for the winter

Focus more on crops w/ the highest nutritional value

Composting

Be more intentional about it.

Collect compostable materials from UALC & Cornerstone Congregants (crass clippings, leafy yard waste, etc.

Leave a third of our beds fallow each year for recharging via green manure crops. The new beds we put in this year will allow us to maintain current production levels while we do that.