It’s around 8 a.m. on a Saturday, and a volunteer crew is hard at work in a garden at Tims Memorial Presbyterian Church in Lutz.
Renee White is yanking plants out of a raised bed, like a one-woman wrecking crew. Her husband Mike is on the other side of the garden trying to make sure that he’s placing a wood post in the right spot for a new raised bed.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
Eric Kopp is working up a sweat, first sawing wood for the new garden bed, and then fixing a water pipe that’s broken.
Meanwhile, Ann Marks and Princess Layne are tending to other garden chores. Marks is scooping up piles of vegetation that Renee White has cleared out of a bed and carrying it to a compost heap. Layne is stripping okra leaves off a plant to allow sunlight to reach other plants.
The volunteers are part of The Mustard Seed Garden Ministry.
They launched the project last year, first finding an area on the church’s property that would work for a garden, said Renee White, who is a Hillsborough County master gardener.
To plant the garden they needed flat terrain, water and sun. They also needed a spot that wasn’t already being used by another group at the church, she said.
“Of all the places that we surveyed on the 11 acres, this was the one that fit everything,” White said.
The volunteers set about transforming a 65-by-55-foot patch of land into a thriving garden.
The idea for the garden came from members of the mission committee, White said.
“Several of us had the idea,” she said. “We have this property, why don’t we use it to God’s glory by taking care of people who don’t have fresh food.”
At the moment, okra, peppers, cherry tomatoes, basil and flowers are growing in the garden. At other times of the year, they plant different crops.
The plants are grown in raised beds, and the gardeners rotate what they grow to reduce problems with fungus, disease, nematodes and other pests.
They also grow a variety of flowers on the front side of the garden.
“We have our pollinators up front here,” White said.
Besides attracting bees and butterflies, the flowers create a beautiful view for passersby and visitors to the church grounds.
As they harvest the garden, they donate its yield to the First Baptist Church and Grace Family Church in Lutz, which both feed the hungry. They also donate produce to Christian Social Services in Land O’ Lakes, which gives it to people in need.
The Mustard Seed Ministry raises money for garden supplies by going to local produce markets and having their own farmer’s market at the church. Whatever they don’t sell, they donate to Christian Social Services.
“One day, it may be tomatoes and broccoli and cabbage and lettuce. On another day, it may be something else,” White said. That’s in addition to donated crops from their garden.
The ministry also allows people to use 4-by-4-foot plots for a $10 annual donation. Layne is growing okra and flowers in one of those plots.
“I just love gardening, and where I live, I do not have a lot of gardening space,” said Layne, who lives in Willow Bend. “So, this is my garden away from home.”
She enjoys helping in the garden ministry, too.
“I just love being active in my church,” Layne said.
Kopp said this is his first experience in serving on an outreach ministry, and he’s glad he signed on.
“I own a landscaping company, so it’s a pretty natural thing,” Kopp said.
Marks, who lives in Wesley Chapel, said she comes from a long line of gardeners. Unlike them, she said, she’s not a skilled gardener. “Weeding is my specialty,” she said, but she enjoys being involved. “It’s all community. It’s pulling our strengths together to help out people who can’t help themselves.”
Published August 6, 2014
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