On Saturday, Sept 26th we helped put the finishing touches on the Encinitas Community Garden, just one week prior to its grand opening.  The community garden is a volunteer project that has been in the works in Encinitas for almost 6 years.  Using land donated by the school district, the volunteers have built about 60 raised planter beds, complete with individual irrigation controls.  The garden planters will be rented to residents of Encinitas for a nominal annual fee.  The community garden will allow apartment dwellers to raise fresh produce, help teach young people how to grow and harvest food, provide a healthy community meeting place, and even allow immigrants to grow foods from their native lands that they can’t find in local grocery stores.

Our Faith and Works group spent most of our time spreading mulch into the pathways between the planter boxes and weeding a large area where future planter boxes will be placed.  We moved close to 100 yards of mulch in about 2 hours and provided some much needed last minute assistance to the regular garden volunteers.  With the help of Faith and Works, the garden was ready for their grand opening on Oct 3rd.  We look forward to seeing all of the wonderful things that grow from this project!  For more information please visit http://www.encinitascommunitygarden.org/.