Local College Student Joins Our Gardening Effort

Elizabeth found the Teaching Garden while fulfilling requirements for an elective horticulture class at NC State, Raleigh. She came back to design a project “all by myself from start to finish.”

A graduating senior in Computer Science, Elizabeth had learned about Square Foot Gardening, an intensive planting technique based on research into the amounts of soil and space different varieties of plants require. She planted a raised bed of early- season greens carefully spaced for maximum yield and tended them for a harvest in mid-April. Since the individual plants almost touch, the crops are impressive, and they totally shade the soil beneath so require almost no weeding.

The garden bed, only eight square feet, yielded a bountiful harvest. Elizabeth distributed fifteen bunches of radishes, turnip greens, and spinach to visitors at our regular Tuesday Chatham Chuckwagon food distribution at St. Bart’s Episcopal Church. There was a little personal reward as well; she shared, “My boyfriend made a stir-fry with the pak choi I had grown, and that was great.”

Elizabeth working in the community garden.

Giving away some of the herbs and vegetables from the garden.