Sabbatical Garden

This project was started as a Sabbatical project, the object was for the church to develop a community garden, a place where the church and community joined in fellowship to provide food resources for both. The Lily Foundation, where our church applied for a sabbatical pastoral renewal grant, received that grant, in the sum of $35,365.00. The church portion was $9050.00 for the garden, pulpit supply, dinners, and travel. The garden started with ground prep, removal of the grassed area, leveling, filling with crushed shell, fencing, then trial runs using bag containers, but quickly we found that not to be viable. We change to raised trough beds and still some bag containers and have seen better outcomes. There were stipulations in the grant, we had to have 4 training sessions, a hydroponic component, and community involvement. We have struggled with community, and the garden has really been the work of a select few from the church. Transitioning from a sabbatical project to an ongoing growing community garden is the hope and plan for the coming years, so although this started as a sabbatical project it is to be a Community Garden. Hope this background helps paint the picture, Betsy has much more specific data, and Richard and Leona have been the builders. Seed supplies came from the New Port Richey library and started in home gardens.