Peace Garden

Partnering with Peace Lutheran Church who provides the land and water, and Food For Others who provides monetary support, FUN oversees 8 families of gardeners at our Peace Garden site.

FUN provides 2 raised beds for each gardener, along with  seeds, seedlings, and expertise to teach and guide the gardeners in growing their own food. 

2022

In 2022 we replaced 6 raised beds that were rotting, extended the fencing to create more room for things to grow, and relocated a gate to allow better access to water. We also provided the gardeners with Earth boxes, graciously donated by Columbia Baptist Church, to give them more space to grow food. 

Peace Garden is still growing strong. We look forward to a wonderful, bountiful 2023.

2021

In 2021, FUN added new gardeners to the Peace Garden crew, and added a new method of keeping birds out of the garden. Look closely at the hanging CDs. The reflection as the CDs flutter in the breeze is the most successful bird deterrent we have found. Plus, it's an innovative way to reuse and recycle a plastic product. 

Most of the gardeners enjoy growing the seeds and seedlings FUN provides as we search high and low to fulfill their requests. Some add to their gardens with culturally significant crops. You never know what you will find growing at Peace Garden!

2020

During 2020, FUN took over the day-today management of the gardens at Peace, supervising the wonderful people who garden. We increased the number of gardeners to 6, ranging from very experienced to no experience at all. It was a productive summer as this group of gardeners were delighted to grow their own food. The onset of the COVID pandemic was a challenging time and gardening became not only an important source of food but a great way to relieve stress.

FUN provided seeds, and seedlings, and expertise via many, many texts which served as growing guides as we were limiting our face-to-face meetings until more was known about COVID and vaccines were readily available.

 

Below are seedlings grown by FUN and provided to the gardeners at Peace. Transplants include: zucchini, crookneck squash, Roma and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, and jalapeno peppers. Seed crops included green beans, radishes, carrots, lettuce, kale, spinach, and lots of cilantro.

FUN grew produce in 4 beds at Peace - tomatoes, cucumbers, lima beans, and tromboncino with a bed of corn with pole beans – 2 of the 3 sisters (see pictures below). Unfortunately, it was a hectic day when the corn was harvested and we didn't get any pictures of the corn cobs.

The 2 sisters: corn and pole green beans.

August 27, 2020

September 4, 2020.

June 24, 2020

August 11, 2020

July 5, 2020

Below, a late fall planting and a mild winter provided FUN with a bountiful spring harvest.

Left to right, turnips, red and green leaf lettuce, carrots and cilantro, kale (March 2020).

2019

Peace Garden was expanded from 6 to 16 raised beds in 2019 when FUN organized volunteers to build 10 additional beds.

From the first planting of seeds and seedlings on June 3rd to the harvest of September 20th, FUN has produced over 225 pounds of vegetables including 6 varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, tromboncino squash, green peppers, jalapenos, green beans, and radishes.

This past month, we planted seeds for a fall harvest, we are looking forward to sharing that with you in the upcoming months. 

September 20th

August 16th

We have harvested pounds of zucchini, cucumbers and a few tomatoes!

July 12th

In the beginning of June we planted zucchini and tromboncino squash, tomatoes and more tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapenos, green peppers, and greens bean seeds. We know it's a late start but our collective green thumbs are excited about the future and the potential harvest.

Using bamboo, we constructed trellises for the tromboncino squash (shown below) and tomatoes (not shown below). 

June 14th