Plants and Spirits are Nurtured in the Garden

Written by Kendra Smith

I got involved in the Pea Patch garden when the first 12 beds were available for gardeners. I wanted to learn how to grow some veggies and didn’t know much about it and thought it was a great way to meet some people I may not know well.

So now we have 24 pea patch beds, a changing food bank garden and active Children’s Garden managed by the Master Gardeners.

I co-manage the pea patch beds and food bank garden and I am a retired Master Gardener.

Kendra Smith and Elizabeth McTyre

I was in the garden a few weeks ago and there was a woman taking photos of the gardens. Not that unusual, lots of people go through the garden on their walks in the neighborhood and we are next to the Bothell High School. This woman was retired and was house sitting in the area and would soon be returning to her east coast home. What brought her to the garden was a google search for a labyrinth to walk. She walked the labyrinth and then came back with a camera and a bag of clothes to put in the blue box. We had a great conversation about garden ministry and veggies and use of outdoor space to build community. She was excited and pleased to find Bothell UMC and was going to post her pictures on her social media platforms.

I have had many conversations in the garden – with a homeless woman looking for some veggies to eat, culinary students from the high school learning to grow veggies, people in sorrow and pain just needing something pretty to look at to calm their spirits.

We have grown and donated lettuce and swiss chard, cucumbers, corn, carrots, beets, and tomatoes. Pea Patch has also donated herbs and parsley and onions. And there
are still several more weeks to harvest. Brussel sprouts, carrots and garlic will over winter and we hope to have a late spring or early harvest. The Master Gardeners also donate their vegetables to the food bank.

Besides the people food, we are feeding the birds as well – check out the sunflowers
growing around the raised beds. I hope you have noticed the huge sunflowers
growing around the new raised beds for the food bank, some are as high as 8 feet!

Sometimes there is teaching and or an exchange of garden information. Sometimes we talk about churches and faith or maybe there is a need for silence and quiet. We come to the garden to grow plants but our spirits are nurtured by the people we meet, the sights and smells of earth our feelings of being connected to creation on all the levels there are.

I have made some really close friendships in the pea patch and I can grow veggies now with more confidence. There were 160 plus pounds grown and donated to the Hopelink foodbank this season from the food bank alone and more by the Children’s Garden. All of the gardens helps me to live our stated purpose – to practice hospitality, feed the poor and to be in relationship with our neighbors and with our God.