It was the late Joyce Tyson who first dared to dream of converting an empty quarter-block lot in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood into a community garden. And while she was a trustee at Faith Lutheran Church, not everyone in her congregation took an immediate shine to the idea.
At a grand opening celebration Sunday morning, Steve Geving recalled that some fellow members of the church had visions of a plow tearing up the well-manicured lawn next door to their place of worship and turning it into a muddy mess. But Geving and others volunteered their services to build a clever series of raised beds encircled neatly with a fence to keep out snack-seeking deer.
Tyson died before seeing her idea of a community garden come to fruition, yet the Rev. Larry Goebel had little doubt about how she would have reacted to what has sprung up in her memory.
“Joyce would have been just elated,” he said.
Ben Johnson, Faith Lutheran’s financial secretary, agreed, saying: “Joyce was very passionate about the idea of this garden. It’s a shame she passed away before she could see it.”
Sun shone down on Sunday’s commemoration of the garden, even as storm clouds loomed. Goebel commented on the favorable growing conditions, after what has so far been a slow, cool start to the gardening season.
He said the garden fits well the church’s educational outreach mission and its community-building ministry.
After attending a gardening convention in Wisconsin and learning about a growing wave of school garden initiatives, Goebel suggested that Tyson’s idea of a community garden could be paired with an effort to involve students from nearby Lester Park Elementary School.
The school was receptive, and Goebel said: “The idea caught on fire, and from then on, I absolutely knew it was going to happen.”
Five raised wooden beds at the garden have been reserved for second- and fifth-graders, who will start plants, tend and harvest them and then save seeds from their produce to start the process all over again.
A few other large beds have been dedicated to supplying fresh vegetables to the CHUM food shelf.
Other beds are available to the general public. Goebel said all will be welcome, not just church members.
Geving said he doesn’t have a plot at the new garden but has enjoyed seeing people begin to claim and plant in the beds.
“The idea is for this to be a place where people come together with their neighbors. It’s already been fun to watch people working with one another and making new friends,” he said.
Geving said the community garden will feature different gardening techniques and demonstration plots designed to share ideas.
Goebel explained that the garden will have a decidedly educational thrust and will be a place where people can come to learn not only about growing produce but canning and other types of food preparation.
The various beds, many fashioned out of reclaimed materials, are designed for both young and old gardeners. There are even waist-high beds for people who have difficulty bending.
The garden has attracted support from many quarters. It has garnered $3,000 in grants from hunger task forces within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The project also has benefited from several fundraising events and numerous private gifts. Goebel estimates that about $6,000 has been invested in the garden so far, and that’s not counting all the volunteer labor and supplies that have been donated.
Donors have included Marshall Hardware, Home Depot, Menards, Rick’s Tree Service, Duluth Dirt, Maly’s Greenhouse, SuperOne and McDonald’s.
Johnson said the congregation already is planning to expand the garden with additional beds and perhaps a gazebo in the future.
“Gardening is a way for us to reduce our carbon footprint,” Goebel said. “And every gardener knows that tomatoes grown elsewhere don’t ever taste as good as the ones you grow in your own backyard.”
For more information about the new community garden and how to claim a plot, call Faith Lutheran Church at (218) 525-2779.
