Another way to grow in community, is to grow and share food.  In the 1U Garden on the West end of the campus, we grow healthy, pesticide and herbicide-free food and share it with folks in the congregation. 

We have eight raised beds plus a wooden bed on stilts to accommodate the disabled or those who can’t bend over, and each spring and fall we plant them with conventional vegetables, including tomatoes, green beans and squash. Behind them is our “perma-garden”, something we built as a sustainable source of food year-round. It’s filled with fruit trees, green leafy plants and tubers. There you will find banana, cherry, mulberry, pomegranate and peach trees. Many of the other food plants there are more common in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia, for example pigeon peas and Brazilian spinach. We also plant some seasonal garden plants back  there, too, including sweet potatoes and watermelon.

Just outside the perma-garden is our blueberry patch, and nearby is an assortment of fruit trees: plum, avocado, mango, and loquat.

All of the food we produce is free to anyone no matter if they are members of the congregation or even the larger community. We just ask that people share.

Ways to Participate

All are welcome in the garden. If you would like some fresh picked vegetables, please come and pick some. 

Or, you might like a contemplative space in Nature just to look and see what’s there.  The garden is always growing and changing, and there might be something new . . . . You just never know!

And to help replenish the soil in our gardens we compost! You can make a deposit of your perishable food waste in the black compost bins near our grass parking on the North side of the campus. (No meat or dairy please)

If you want to help grow our food or be a part of our gardening community, contact Andy Berry, who heads the committee that manages it: (garden@orlandouu.org). Or if you would like to tend a raised bed of your very own for six months, contact Andy.  Or, maybe you would like to join our gardening community and attend our monthly “Garden Parties”, where on the Fourth Saturday every month we gather to prune, weed, plant, water, and then have a break to be “in community” and maybe even learn something new about gardening!  (Sometimes we even have an evening “cook out”/picnic together!)

If there are other ways you’d like to help with the garden, contact Andy. If you’d like to donate money toward its upkeep (plants, and tools), you can make a gift to the church and indicate it’s for the garden.

And once again, All are Welcome!