By: Kelsey Riggs, Garden Coordinator

Last Saturday was Alliance’s Garden Launch and...mission accomplished! It was a great workday. We had volunteers from Service Raleigh, Edenton Street United Methodist Church, Activate Good, and the Raleigh Fellows Program. The garden was filled with extra hands ready to work, and those hands were such a blessing. We weeded the garden and mulched where we weeded in hopes that the weeds do not come back; for those of you growing your own vegetable gardens, know this is a very important task to do in early spring!

Garden volunteers prepared more land for tilling by removing the grass and adding leaf mulch and compost to add nutrients to the soil. Our last group sanded and spray painted donated bamboo; later this week, I will construct a large bamboo teepee upon which to grow pole beans. We're looking forward to this creative project, and hope once it is finished that children will be able to explore inside the teepee and see the plants growing!

Although it was too cold to plant our seedlings, the ground is ready for them when the temperatures warm up! At the end of the workday, we had all the volunteers gather together and our Director of Pastoral Care, Toby Bonar, dedicated the garden to our patients and neighbors, and asked that the Lord bless our garden and make it fruitful:

Many thanks to all who came to this special event and help "make our garden grow"! If you'd like to get involved in our Community Garden, we hope you'll join us at one of our two monthly garden workdays: the fourth Saturday of the month from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm, or the second Wednesday of the month from 5 to 6:30 pm. Contact me with questions, garden@alliancemedicalministry.org.