Adventures in Gardening
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 andattachment 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
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
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.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Little Things
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Another Bump In the Road
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 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
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!