Asbury Church Community Garden
“I love the program. It gives us a place to take the harvest we have. Without Plant a Row, I don’t know where we would take 200 pounds of tomatoes or whatever we’ve harvested that day. It’s a great service to the community!” - Brenda, Community Garden Manager
Ten years ago, a group of members of Asbury Church, inspired by the Highland United Methodist community garden, met together with hopes of starting their own community garden. Here, ideas and dreams for their garden began to become a reality. Asbury Church had a softball field that wasn’t being used: wide open with full sun - an ideal location for vegetables! The committee chose to create plots here and lease them by the year to church members so that each person could manage their own plot. Because many members of the church have been Logan’s shoppers for a long time, they knew immediately they would donate some of their harvest to Plant a Row. Brenda, Asbury Church community garden manager recalled: “We’ve been Logan’s shoppers forever, so we knew we were going to use Plant a Row.”
They started with 6 rows: 37 plots the first year, but because of the high demand for plots, the following year they added another row. The plots are now leased by the year and the gardeners agree to donate at least half of what they grow.
Before, most of the members of the Asbury community garden were church members, but now about 50% of the gardeners are church members and the other 50% are members of the community. The church also has a preschool so some of the parents of the students have seen the garden and become involved. The neighbors quickly discovered the community garden as well. However, Brenda commented, “A lot [of finding out about the garden] is word of mouth. We have gardeners from miles away who heard about the garden by word of mouth or have a friend who is involved.”
Community gardens are an incredible place for building friendships and giving people opportunities to serve within their community. Especially in light of COVID-19, the community garden is a great place for families to come (while maintaining social distancing, of course).
“If I’m out there all day, I can probably count 10-12 people who come check on their plots but the number constantly changes. A couple of us will be there a lot, but most people come by a few times a week....and now everybody says it’s so good to get out of the house. People this year especially enjoy being out here. One person would come before, now whole families will come.” - Brenda
Asbury community garden has been donating to Plant a Row since they started in 2011, and Logan’s is so grateful for how much they contribute each year!
“I love seeing the pounds we donate each year grow! In that sense I’m kinda competitive, each year I want to do better than the year before!” - Brenda
And they have; last year Asbury Community Garden contributed approximately 8,656 pounds of produce to Plant a Row.
A big thanks to Asbury Community Garden for all you’ve given and how you’ve served the local community!