Change taking root in the community garden

front-line reporting fom Claire Goodwin-Gittlesohn, newest SWU intern extraordinaire:

The Roots of Change Community Garden is running and growing strong! Each week, community members, students, and members of the Southwest Workers Union have been working diligently, weeding, mulching, planting new black eyed peas and okra, harvesting tomatoes, and battling fire ants and aphids. Last week, we hosted a group of youth from the Boys and Girls Club, and we saw how exciting a little bit of dirt and some seeds could actually get. We taught them how important water was for our food to grow, and hopefully we changed their perspective on soil a little, showing them that it has purposes other than for getting you dirty.

Right now, we are growing organic tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, black-eyed peas, Serrano peppers, New Mexico green chiles, grapes, oregano, mint, bananas, strawberries, raspberries, green beans, and squash. The next few weeks we are hoping to harvest and plant more seeds, if the summer heat will give them the opportunity to grow. We're also building a compost and starting a native plant garden, which the entire community will be able to enjoy in the years to come.

We're always looking for new community members, students, and any other people who would like to help us with in the garden. So come on in and learn how fun gardening can be!

Call Claire at (210) 299-2666 for more info.