HELPING 'OUR HOUSE' SHELTER BUILD A GARDEN

Ben Pope, myself and several other Arkansas GardenCorps members ventured over to the 'Our House' shelter to help them build a garden recently. Kris, an Americorps member serving at Our House, hosted the work day and a lot of the idea behind the garden was his as well. The idea is for tenants of the shelter to have a beautiful garden to take part in building and growing themselves. In the process, a beautiful place for garden workshops has been created as well! We began by moving the thick layers of leaf mulch that had been getting collected for several months. Once we removed all the leaves, we rototilled the ground and began building up rows

for the many transplants that were donated for the project. As we worked and cleared the area, conversations about erosion, soil water retention, mulching and companion planting were all discussed. We ended up transplanting tomatoes, basil, sage, oregano, rosemary, lavender, some greens and some peppers into the newly made garden rows. We also cleared the viney mess along the fence that was blocking a lot of potential light to the garden! THAT IS WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE! Thanks Kris and thanks Our House!! UPDATE: Kris, (an Americorps member from Our House) has already begun a 2nd bed with more transplants! He said that one just wasn't enough! Hahaha!