Left to right are: Liam, Kaiden and Maddie West with a large harvest earlier in the summer including beans, carrots, tomatoes, kale, cucumbers and peppers. Courtesy photo
WINCHESTER – The St. Paul’s Community Garden is becoming a tradition in the community.
In its third year, the garden, tended by countless volunteers produced close to 250 lbs of vegetables to be shared with Community Food Share and J.W. McIntosh Seniors’ Centre in Williamsburg for their Meals on Wheels program.
On Sun., Sept. 13, the garden celebrated this years harvest and thanked all of the volunteers and community sponsors who have made the garden a success.
The garden is a partnership between St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church and Community Food Share. The church provides the land, water and muscle and Community Food Share benefits with produce for their various food banks at different locations.
It was a banner year for the small community garden.
Leslie Revere, the garden coordinator said, “We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of people who wanted to volunteer this year, as well as the generosity of local businesses.”
“With this support and a large group of volunteers to help, we were able to almost triple the size of the garden this year. With this increased size, in addition to Community Food Share, which received the lion’s share of the harvest, we were also able to donate some of the vegetables to JW McIntosh Seniors’ Centre in Williamsburg for their Meals on Wheels program for seniors,” she said.
Creating and maintaining the garden is a team effort shared by volunteers and community sponsors.
Cedarview Builder’s Supply in Winchester donated approximately $1500 worth of cedar to build six new raised garden beds plus a raised flower bed. Cooter’s in Berwick donated $1,000 which covered the cost of a new drip irrigation system and allowed volunteers to water the garden more efficiently and effectively.
KG Patterson Construction donated a load of topsoil to fill the new raised garden beds and the township of North Dundas provided a $400 community grant which helped cover the cost of compost and seeds.
Cup of Jo’s in Winchester donated money toward the purchase of t-shirts for the garden volunteers.
The garden also received seedlings from the Plot of Earth market garden outside of Winchester and from the Dundas 4-H Club.
The Winchester United Church donated painted vegetable row markers and Loucks Pastures in Chesterville donated composted sheep manure for the garden.
Revere said, “We stuck to the tried and true favourites for the vegetables we grew: peas, beans, radishes, beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, cabbage, cucumbers, spring onions, kale, and Swiss chard. As of Sept. 11, we had harvested over 240 lbs of vegetables. And we still have a number of items to harvest over the next few weeks.”
Joseph Morin is the Editor of the Eastern Ontario AgriNews, and the Record. He is, despite years of practice, determined to eventually play the guitar properly. He has served the Eastern Ontario community as a news editor, and journalist for the past 25 years with the Iroquois Chieftain, Kemptville Advance, West Carleton Review, and Ottawa Carleton Review in Manotick. He has never met a book he did not like.
