Short season for crops

The long, wet spring impacted church gardens in the Spokane Valley that were planted to benefit local food banks, leading to somewhat disappointing harvests for some vegetables such as tomatoes.

“It’s been a bad year,” said the Rev. Craig Goodwin, pastor of Millwood Presbyterian. “It was a very late start.”

Millwood Presbyterian has been overseeing the launch of the new Pumpkin Patch community garden on Argonne Road just north of the Spokane River. While this is the first year for the Pumpkin Patch, the church garden at Veradale United Church of Christ has been going strong for several years.

The large garden, which provides food for church members and the Spokane Valley Partners Food Bank, has been much less productive this year, said volunteer Becky Knapp. “Our warm weather crops, tomatoes and peppers particularly, have been not as productive as usual,” she said. “We still managed to take quite a bit to Spokane Valley Partners.”

The garden has grown a bumper crop of raspberries and strawberries, but the berries have such a short shelf life that the food bank can’t take them, Knapp said. “We use them at fellowship time at our church,” she said. “Boy, do they go over good.”

Still, the garden has been producing lettuce, onions, radishes, beans, spinach and squash for food bank customers. Knapp, who is training to become a Master Gardener, thinks the church has donated about 1,000 pounds of food so far, “which is way down from where we were last year. It’s just been that kind of year.”

On a recent Friday Goodwin was in the garden harvesting carrots, beets, peppers, potatoes and pumpkins that would be given away that same day during his church’s monthly free food distribution. The garden has rows of raised beds. Ten of them are dedicated to growing produce for Second Harvest and the others can be rented by the public for a small annual fee. Rows of pumpkins were also planted.

People are responsible for weeding and watering their own beds, while church volunteers maintain the food bank beds.

Goodwin describes the first year as a learning experience. “Our soil mix for the beans wasn’t good, so our beans didn’t do well,” he said. Volunteers also learned that the raised beds dry out quickly. The ground under the beds is rocky and extremely compacted, so it doesn’t drain well. Some beds, which are placed directly on the ground, would overflow when watered because the water couldn’t soak into the ground.

The pumpkin patch also didn’t do as well as expected because of the hard and rocky ground. “There’s just not enough soil,” he said.

The garden was put together at the last minute this spring, so Goodwin hopes to use the fall and winter to improve the land. “We’re going to condition the soil more,” he said. “Maybe we can get some leaves from the city of Millwood and mulch them in.”

Putting discussions of soil quality and spring temperatures aside, the gardens have been growing something more than things that sprout from the earth. Both use volunteers, who are brought together for a common purpose and with a shared love of gardening. “I love the idea of eating and sharing with others fresh, locally grown produce that’s chock-full of vitamins and good taste,” Knapp said. “Ours is really a group effort. It’s been a great community builder for the church.”

Richard Bohn lives next to the Pumpkin Patch and also volunteers there. “There’s been a civilizing influence on the neighborhood,” he said. “Even people who don’t have plots here stop and talk.”