Our “Good News Garden” is a joint ministry of St. Luke’s and St. Titus’ Episcopal Church in Durham. The garden is named after St. Phocas, the patron saint of gardeners.
April has been a busy month at Saint Phocas Garden. We have planted 2 Wineberry raspberries, 2 currant bushes, and 1 bayleaf tree in the shady area by the church.
We’ve also created two new garden beds. The soil in the new area looks nice, but is still very new and clearly hasn’t started much in the way of microbial life. It will be interesting to see how our plants fare this year. Even if they do not do well, they will help build soil for a better garden next year.
Building soil is like putting savings in the bank. At first it might not seem like much, but over time interest (microbes and dead plant matter) builds until you have some serious capital (healthy soil) with which to do mighty works (grow plants that feed many people).
In the new beds we have planted 7 different varieties of heirloom tomato, green and banana peppers, scallions, onions, leeks, cosmos, marigolds, sunflowers and radishes (for their flowers).
We also cleared out the old bed and sprinkled it with a cover crop of buckwheat which will attract pollinators and help improve the soil.
We have begun and/or ended most of our gatherings with prayer support as we strive to create a garden that builds community and feeds people.
We meet on Fridays at noon, weather permitting. We will start thirty minutes later on May 7 as we are visiting CC Spaulding first for teacher appreciation day. Please come and join us if you can!
View our photo gallery for more pictures of our crew at work.
stlukesdurham.org 