Welcome to Milford Gardens!

Milford Gardens is a nature-oriented
program designed to teach youth about ownership, stewardship and
teamwork while helping them deal effectively with stress and

attachment issues.


Located on a one acre plot of land just west of Milford, youth will plant, grow and harvest the garden as well as manage the selling, consuming and giving of all garden produce. Families of the youth in our program and members of the community will also share in the garden harvest.

Built around Garden Based Learning, this field therapy program provides relevant work-integrated and community service activities for youth.

We believe that supporting personal growth and fostering each person's God-given abilities can have a huge, long-term impact on the lives of children, their families, and the communities in which they live.

Our ultimate goal is for Milford Gardens to be self-sustaining and earn a profit from the sale of the extra produce. Income from sold goods will go toward the operational cost of the garden as well as a scholarship fund for post-secondary education.

We invite you to join us on the adventures we will have this summer!


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Explosion

This happens every year, so how is it that we are always taken by surprise?
One day you have nothing. The next day you have wheelbarrows full of cucumbers.
The fruits (and veggies) of our labor are now here.
Okra, cucumbers and peppers are growing like crazy.
The tomato plants are full of fruit, just waiting for them to turn red.
Pumpkins are going strong, we should have a great fall harvest.

Lawrence has been passing out the veggies to his clients, his co-workers, the Malone Center, and other
families that can use the fresh produce.

We've had kids from the City Mission, GTS Youth Club and a few other facilities out to help us with the garden. What a great experience this is turning out to be!

People are being blessed by this project. What a great feeling!

BBQ and Basketball



The GTS Youth Club was once again able to come out and help us in the garden. Afterward, we went to the Milford City Park to have a cook out and, of course, play some basketball. A big thanks to Tim and Jean Springer and Kevin and Carmen Yeackley for helping us make it all happen!

A highlight for me was all the boys taking off their shoes so they wouldn't get them dirty in the garden. It had rained recently making the ground soft, but not sopping. I got a kick out of everyone walking barefoot and being able to feel the dirt on their feet. Growing up, I spent many summers barefoot on my family's acreage, including our vegetable garden. There is nothing like the smell or feel of rich, brown dirt. 

Many of the youth in the club live in the North central area of Lincoln, which does not have any full-court basketball courts, if you can believe it!  They were so excited to see a full length court at our park...finally a real game!

Everyone had a great time! They stayed until it was too dark out to see very well. Even at that point, one of the kids asked if they could stay longer and play some football.

Thanks Everyone!
Weeding onions.

More onion weeding.


Looking good!!!

Friends from Grand Island and Tim putting up the rest of the tomato cages.

GTS Youth Club arrives.
More tomato cages

Weed pulling demonstration.

Working hard!

More weeding.

Laying down straw.


They wouldn't look at the camera!
Eating ice cream.

Having fun with the camera

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

GTS Youth Club

This past Sunday we had a great visit from Angelo and some of the boys from his GTS Youth Club. 

And they got the job done!

It was fun for them and us. Many of these boys never get out of the city--it was a perfect evening with a perfect blue sky--I'm so glad they were able to experience it. One of the boys asked if he could just get a tent and camp out! 

Those of us fortunate to live in or close to the wide open space sometimes take it for granted.
The peacefulness.
The smell of the air.
The stillness.

Angelo and the boys are going to be regulars out at the garden. They are coming out this Saturday to work and then have a BBQ at our house. If you want to come be a part, let us know! 

To learn more about Angelo and the youth club and how you can help with his mission, visit his website at www.gtsyouthclub.org  What an amazing job he does with these young men. The love between all of them is clear.

We are so blessed to have met Angelo and are excited about our partnership with his program.

Lil' Bub taking a break.  


Mr. Angelo!



Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Little Things

Life is about the little things.
Little things add up to make a big impact. 
Working in this garden has reinforced my belief that,
although God works in mysterious ways, 
most often He works in little ways.
When I think of all the little ways our Father has nurtured this project,
I am reminded of the beautiful passage in Matthew chapter 6. 

"Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more important than food,
and the body more important than clothes?
 Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes?
 See how the lilies of the field grow?
They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that
not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,
will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?'
or 'What shall we drink?'
or 'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own."



A wheelbarrow.
Bales of straw.
Garden hoes.
A van ride. 
Tillers.
So many little things.

 We continue to praise God for His quiet work in this little patch of ground.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Another Bump In the Road

Lawrence will be out of commission for basically the rest of the summer. He had surgery today to repair
a completely ruptured Achilles tendon. For the next month or so, you won't be seeing him out and about. He has a large cast on at the moment. In a couple of weeks he'll move to a "boot" which will give him much more mobility.

This disrupts the work schedule for the garden a little bit. We still have kids coming out Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, but we won't have kids Wednesday mornings, until Lawrence can go back to work.

Praise God that the surgery went well! We want to personally thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during this time.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

WOW!! And the Story Continues.......

We received a generous donation from one of Lawrence's friends.

We were able to buy soaker hose and all of the pepper and tomato cages!!!! 

Hooray! 

Thank you for your generosity! 

I feel like the story goes like this:
                      the son had a father,
because the father was a good man,
                     because the man was a boy,
because the boy was changed,
                     because he worked in the garden,
because someone brought him to the garden,
                     because someone planted the garden,
because someone believed in the garden. 

We never know how a seemingly insignificant act on our part can change the future of many generations.

This is how we see it.

Thank you all for your support!

Sad News

Well, we hit a bit of a bump in the road.

Our corn was not planted far enough from the seed corn in the adjacent field.

Because of cross pollination concerns, we had to till up the sweet corn so it would not effect the farmer's seed corn production.

What a sad day that was for us! But, it was a lesson learned.

Now we can focus on the rest of the garden, which is growing nicely!