Visit Our New Rose Garden!

Andrew Hudspeth and Hillary Baker hard at work in the Rose Garden.*

Be sure to stop by the church garden soon. Every day, in every way, it is being transformed by roses and perennial and annual flowers to make a statement filled with beauty and purpose. Now in its 5th year, the community garden approaches maturity and has the promise of lasting a long, long time.

Hillary Baker, daughter of Jim and Tracy

Hillary Baker is our newest community gardener a cheerful and hard working one too. Welcome to the garden Hillary!

*Photos by Jennifer Hudspeth

Jump in! The Garden's Fine!

The weeding is all done in the Flower Garden (thank you, Mrs. Hudspeth!) and the gardeners are getting ready to select plants. There is much conversation about roses; if you'd like to join the conversation talk to Jennifer.


A trellis has been put up for string beans. Your gardeners have been asked to "grow more beans" and it shall be done!



Tomato cages are ready to receive tomato plants--I think we'll shoot for May 1 for planting. If you would like a special variety let us know and we'll plant it i we can find it. Please note the straw; it is an essential input for gardens. Thank you Brook and Linda West for the straw!

Lemon balm is up and spreading like, well, like a weed. Feel free to take a shovel full home; it smells wonderful and it grows great in small pots on kitchen window sills too.

The 3 x 5 foot grow box is ready for adoption. No stooping required, no bending either. If you'd like to plant a small garden in the grow box--say a tomato plant, pepper plant, lettuce, onions, etc.--go for it! We'll even plant and water it for you.

We're expanding our "investment" in container gardening because we want to encourage people to start patio and very small yard gardens. If you'd like to adopt a container you can do so by purchasing some garden soil and whatever plant you'd like to grow in the container. Your community gardeners will take care of it for you!

Remember, anyone can participate in the Community Garden. families and individuals can take over a row and grow exclusively for their own families or, join the community group and share it all. Jump in! The Garden's fine!

Finally, We're in the Garden!

Delayed by cold and rain the community gardeners are  finally ready to rock and roll!

If you have manure, straw, or mulch to donate--we can use it!

We're starting to weed & hope to plant in 2 weeks!

If you'd like a row for your family just see Dan & pick one out!

Praise God, from whom all blessing flow!

Palm Sunday 2013

Fred West

Don Rausterholz, Today's Deacon

Dave Buttgen, Contata Author

Choir Practice w/ David Bell

Rob and Skip

Palm Sunday Communion

Early Arrivals

We thank you, Lord, for the blessing you have afforded our little church and church family. God is Good!

Crookneck Early Yellow Summer Squash

Early in the month we posted pictures of a small scale greenhouse under construction. Now, we're pleased as punch to show a couple of photos of baby plants on their way to the dinner table (in 65 to 90 days!).

Roma Grande Tomato seedling

This baby Roma tomato seedling has 12 little brothers and sisters, all waiting to go into the garden in about 4 to 5 weeks. We'll plant some Big Boys too, along with a couple of heritage varieties as well. Cucumbers, Hubbard Squash, and okra are coming along too. Be sure to stop by the garden early next month to see how we're doing.

As always, thank you, dear members for your generosity supporting our Community Gardening efforts!

We're Getting a Green House!

This week, your Community Gardeners built a small green house out of recycled and donated materials from Skip and Char French and Susan Krotz. Since we are not "big" farmers or market gardeners it occurred to us that we didn't need to build or use a large greenhouse--a small house that would help propagate about 250 plants (tomatoes, eggplants, squash, etc.) would be sufficient.

The pictures above show a structure that is 30 inches wide by 80 inches long and 39 inches high at the peak. Small cutouts on the bottom sill of one gable end allow us to run extension cords to small heaters and a connection for drip lines for irrigation. The entire structure weighs under 100 pounds and can be tilted up for extensive watering or to cool off as necessary.

Our next steps will be to wrap the structure seen here in plastic and then load it up with seed trays. We'll post more pictures to show our progress as the season unfolds. We thank Skip, Char, and Susan for their generous gifts!

Everything Old is New Again

Gosh! There is nothing to see in this photo! How come?

There's nothing to see in the photo above because Don Rusterholz has been filling and painting all the big ugly cracks that appeared on our walls as our beautiful old church's foundations settled a bit in our recent drought. Don has painstakingly climbed ladders, matched paint, and made our walls new again--no cracks!--quietly, efficiently, and faithfully.

Don, we thank you (and Louise!) for taking such good care of us. You are loved!