BUMCCG

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - New raised bed 8/30/26.  This last week, we built our second raised bed, which is a longer and skinner that the first raised bed. I am thankful for my husband, who help me to build and fill the first few layers.  The first layer is logs and stick, which will help feed the soil for several years and provide good drainage. On Saturday, Dan and I filled the beds from the big pile of compost.  Now that the pile of compost is gone, I can order a free chip drop from a local arborist to layer the pathways to help prevent weeds.  Some of the summer veggies are starting to die off. I planted some cucumber seedlings and clipped back some of the marigolds and used in the compost bins.  Many of veggies are sill growning and producing 10-20 pounds of food every other day for our neighbors.  Our neighbors are usually picking up the produce within a day.  I plan to plant winter vegetables in our new best soon.  Thanks, L...

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - Produce and Pest 8/23/26.  We harvested several times this week and put the produce in the gleaning baskets. I had some excitement on Saturday when I discover a baby king snake that I threw into our new raised bed with mulched leaves. I am very thankful to my volunteers, who help me to capture the snake and send it off to the forest this afternoon.  Today, we also did an nice harvest of okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, tromboncino squash, green beans, and peppers.   Last Thursday, we had a great harvest to put in the gleaning baskets. The garden is growing.  We harvested over 23 pounds of cucumbers, okra, green beanks, tromboncino squash, and tomatoes.  The Tromboncino squash is taking over the garden fence next to the building and producing big squash.  I am thankful for the good supply of food scraps on my red can. I need lots of compost for my new raised bed.  I alway check my food scraps before I put into our com...

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - New Signs and Bed 8/16/26. This week, we added new signs for the community garden and gleaning baskets. We also added a new raised bed that we are filling with great soil.  Our orange Gleaning basket sign:  GLEANING BASKET at the edge of our field for YOU from the BUMC Community Garden. YOU MATTER! Leviticus 19:9-10 NIV:  “When you reap the harvest of your land,  do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.” A new sign to identify the Community Garden: Bearden UM Church Community Garden The Mission of the BUMC Community Garden is to: Provide a source of highly nutritious fresh vegetable to area “food banks” and gleaning basket for distribution to persons in need; Effectively and efficiently manage the resources provided by Bearden Unite...

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - Produce Giveaway 8/8/26. We had 73 pounds of garden produce that we gave away at our BUMC Produce Giveaway.  Tomateos, okra, and cumcumbers: Green beans and onions: Potatoes: Carrots, turnips, tromboncino and yellow squash:  I also made roasted tromboncino squash and onions that I gave away as samples to help folks understand how it tastes and how to cook. I also gave away the recipe.  We also had greens.  I was very fortunate to have volunteers help with harvesting Thursday and Saturday. They also help weight and record all the produce.  God has been watering an inch mid-day Saturday morning.  This week, our gleaning basket has been filled up almost every day and folks have been collecting it all by the next day. I hope soon to have same more professional and waterproof signs.  I am very thankful for God growing great fresh food that we get to distribute to those in need.  Blessings, Leigh

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - Gleaning Basket 8/4/26.  Yesterday at the Knox County Master Gardener's meeting, I heard a presentation by Pastor Chris Battle about starting the Battlefield Farms (https://battlefieldfarm.org/), which was to help solve the food desert problem in East Knoxville. He also talked about the start of the Knox County Community Gardens and Grower's Alliance (https://knoxgardenalliance.org/), which our community garden is a member of. When he started the farm, they added gleaning baskets to the fences surround the farm to distribute food, which was based on Leviticus 19:9-10. I loved this idea and today added a basket to our fence with a sign about the gleaning basket and placed our harvest in the basket and fence.  The sign says:  GLEANING BASKET at the edge of our field for YOU from the BUMC Community Garden. YOU MATTER! Leviticus 19:9-10 NIV “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather ...

 Bearden UMC Community Garden - Harvest week of 8/1/26.  This week, we have been harvesting about 10 lbs of produce every other day. We have plenty of cucumbers, green beans, okra, tomatoes, peppers, and tromboncino squash. This week, God has only water a quarter of an inches this week until today. We build a cement block wall by the first bed to divert the flooding to the path.  This week, Lee provided us with the lovely pile of mulched leaves that we will use between layers of food scraps in the compost bins.  The tromboncino squash plant is growing like crazy and producing a good amount squashes. These squashes are in the zucchini family and taste like zucchini when they are young. When they get really big and old, they are like butternut squashes.  Harvest of Cucucmbers, Tromboncino, and Okra.  Harvest of tomatoes, pepper, and green beans.  This week we gave away one of our harvest to a family listed in the careportal. We gave a harvest t...