El Jardîn de Zion St has lay dormant for months, through a Halloween snowstorm and an unseasonably warm winter. Everything but kale and a few hardy greens have long since flowered and been folded into beds for compost.

But this spring the garden is full of life again as volunteers and neighbors prepare it for a productive summer.

On a rainy Friday evening in March, our program leader team met with some neighbors at the Park Street Library branch to plan for the new season. Then on April 7^th we had our first community workday. We cleaned the lots, mowed the grass, and helped neighbors plant in their raised beds (seeds courtesy of John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds and the Perennial Harmony Garden Shop!)

Last summer, we had a waiting list for raised beds until August, so this spring we decided to focus on expanding el jardín de Zion St to accommodate as many neighbors as possible. On April 21^st we participated in Global Youth in Service Day and hosted Hartford Boy Scouts and Public Allies in our garden. Together we built 35 raised beds and got started filling them with soil (courtesy of Flamig Farm!)

The next day was Earth Day, and we celebrated with Public Allies and more volunteers by hosting another workday at the garden to build the next 25 raised beds- which would bring us to our goal of 60 new beds- or doubling the growing capacity of the garden. Despite fears that we would be rained out, we finished 23 before the rain got bad. We would have kept going, but we ran out of screws! (My dad finished the last 2 in our garage at home).

Now both lots are full to the brim with beds. Our next step is to line and fill them all with healthy organic soil!

Join us for our next workday on May 12^th 10-2 to shovel shovel shovel and get those boxes ready for planting! We can’t wait to see them full of life this summer ❤