Garden and Atlee Work day and Garden Blessing was held on a Warm, Beautiful Saturday, April 14, 2018. With a good number of All Souls people and over 20 Boy Scouts from Troupe 521, organic compost was spread on the lower garden, the garden was tilled, the Atlee House borders were cleaned up, flower bulbs from Easter planted, and two elevated beds and one raised bed was set in place and filled with a mix of compost, garden soil, vermiculite and coconut coir. It was a wonderful morning!
Boy Scout Connor McNulty's Eagle Scout project was to set the raised bed in the ground, finish the elevated beds, dress them with contractor's fabric, and then mix the compost with the soil and other additives to fill the large 10 x 3 feet by 14 inched deep beds. That is a lot of soil to make! Connor did a great job organizing the work details with his colleagues, and the parents the parents that came were fantastic too.
Everyone stopped at 11:30 am to Bless the Garden. This annual tradition recognizes the gift of nature, creation, nurture, and sustenance that the garden provides for those that get our produce, and for the workers that visit the garden.
Now in its 7th year, the All Souls garden has provided over 6 tons of food to local food banks. We are grateful for The Diocese of Virginia's Mustard Seed Grant for funding for the beds, to MCEF (Mechanicsville Churches Emergency Fund) for a generous monetary gift this spring, and to the Smith Family Farm in Beaverdam for over 40 Straw Bales that we will plant in this summer. And most of all, we are grateful to each and every volunteer that will come to the garden to plant, weed, till, wash, sort, bag, and deliver vegetables to our feeding programs.
