Gardening is a beautiful connection to the earth. You get your hands in the deep rich soil, you have the sun at your back, and the breeze to cool you. You put tiny seeds into the earth and through the long days of summer you watch them grow. In the end you get something beautiful, but even more, you have food for your table. The taste and flavor of freshly picked vegetables just simply can’t be beat.
And even though I love all these things, communal gardens are even better because of the people you get to meet. Neighbors you never knew stop by to talk and lend a hand. Just this last week at the Story Garden, at 35th and Humboldt, I met our neighbor Gilbert who donated a mulcher to the garden to help with our progress. Another neighbor named Donna, who is now on disability due to breast cancer, wants to come and spend her time in the garden helping the community, reconnecting and feeling alive again.
We are so excited for all the stories to be born in this space again this summer, and the food that will grow, but we can’t do that without you! This Story Garden is run by neighbors for neighbors. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. Do you want to help and get involved, or maybe you have wood or plants or tools to donate? Maybe you want to host an event or simply come and enjoy the space. If those things are true, and you want to be a part of it, but don’t know how, contact Dani at danielle.tietjen@gmail.com or join the Facebook group The Story Garden.
Here is a short list of already scheduled events: Saturday May 7, 9 a.m.-noon, garden clean up and building planting boxes; Saturday May 14, 3-6 p.m., Garden Launch Party! Plant the seeds and stay for a BBQ. June events will be posted on the FB group and on the community board in the garden. Events will include story-times, sing-alongs with Rachel Kurtz, movie nights and BBQs.
The garden needs help! Do you have any of the following? Empty wine bottles, paint, water bottles, work gloves, blueberry bushes, perennials for the boulevard, wood chips and/or scrap wood for plant signs. If so let us know at danielle.tietjen@gmail.com and drop them off at the Story Garden.