Gardening in the snow

A group of students from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota decided to spend their spring break in St. Louis and volunteer with Gateway Greening. Gateway Greening sent them to us for March 14 and 15. Our gardens have tons of work to be done, so we certainly appreciated the help. However, no one was planning on a late winter snow storm for our first garden work day. We watched the forecast go from bad to worse, and eventually watched about two inches of wet snow fall on our weedy gardens. But the Macalester Crew showed up for work anyway, so we all went out and gardened in the snow in the middle of North St. Louis.

Our first youth garden employee was also present, working towards his laptop. Everyone ended up having a great time, and afterward we took them on a tour of the neighborhood, and tried to communicate the idea of pastoring the community. The Macalester group asked a lot of really good questions.

The next day, we went to the Clay School garden, which is completely full of crab grass. Tuesday was a little windier, and the garden was very muddy. But we all worked hard again, and made great headway. Our youth employee's little brother came, and kept the college kids entertained. This garden had a lot of small trees growing in it, and we all celebrated whenever one was dug up. We wrapped up our time having some good conversations back at the Opportunity Center.

Thanks so much to the group from Macalester College, for spending their spring break serving a community miles away, and coming and working hard with us in the snow and mud! And thanks to Gateway Greening for helping us accomplish our goals! And thanks to God for supplying us laborers!

We still have a lot work ahead of us for the gardens, including weeding, tilling, filling beds with compost, mulching, repairing, and of course, PLANTING!!! If you or your group are interested in helping, let Jason know: jason@sunministries.org