Having a garden plot was never high on my priority list until my husband Jeff and I stared attending a church in Indianapolis called Englewood Christian Church (check them out here
http://www.englewoodcc.com/ ) This congregation has a flourishing garden that they all spend hours tending to through the spring and summer months. They even hold agriculture conferences and feed the attendees with the food from this plot. It was during this time that Jeff and I started realizing that growing our own food was important on so many spiritual levels. It was crucial in taking care of the world that God had given us, gardening helps us stay connected with nature and the things that He has created. We also realized that we live in a fast food culture where we expect everything (including food) to be immediate and available when we want it. We started to see the beauty of cultivating the land, working hard and waiting patiently for the food to ripen. We began to read books about gardening and Christianity and it all started to fall into place. The only problem was that we were all talk, but had not really spent any time doing these things that we found so valuable.
A year later we moved to Bloomington, Indiana and actually rented a little community garden plot. And we finally put our words into action. But unfortunately, for many reasons (including a very hot, dry summer, vacations, and busyness) this little plot was a disaster. It has been two summers since then and my friend Victoria and I have decided to try our hand at co-owning a community garden plot this spring and summer.
Neither one of us knows much about gardening, but we are anticipating the fun journey together. We will face many obstacles (I'm sure of it) and we will learn a lot along the way and hopefully we will even get to eat some of the food that we grow in our garden.
