Ellenville Garden Village: 2015 GARDEN

Ellenville Garden Village - 2015 GARDEN

Praise Dominion Family Worship Center, Ellenville

Address
Praise Dominion Family Worship Center
21 Canal Street
Ellenville, NY 12428

Emergency circumstances forced John Clark and his now-wife Kathy to abandon their Catskills, New York homestead in January, 2015, and the unplanned relocation down the mountain to Ellenville consumed all their finances. A conspiracy of adversities had rendered university professor John and school teacher Kathy jobless at that time (their car had broken down irreparably, and John’s visa was still being processed), therefore desperation necessitated a temporary availing of the village’s food pantry assistance.

Praise Dominion Family Worship Center, Ellenville, NY

Wishing to reciprocate the kindness received in Ellenville, John actively supported the community work of his new local churches, Assembly of God and Praise Dominion. On February 15, 2015 Pastor Reyes Torres and his aspiring horticulturalist wife, Virginia, approved John’s plan to coordinate congregation members in the creation of a 3,000 sq ft organic vegetable garden on unused land adjoining the Praise Dominion church building. The harvest would be distributed as part of Praise Dominion’s food pantry commitment, and any surplus of vegetables sold as a church fund-raiser. John would also coordinate a flower bed beautification of parts of the church’s grounds.

Praise Dominion vegetable garden area, pre-cultivation, 2014

Plan of the church grounds, Praise Dominion FWC, Ellenville

It was envisaged that as the Praise Dominion grounds took an aesthetic and productive form, all ages of the congregation would develop a new and possibly active interest in horticulture, and that local residents would feel inspired by the church garden project. A dozen members of the congregation had promised participation, therefore a design was drawn up to create twenty vegetable beds following the last of the heavy frosts, with all gardening work to be carried out using simple tools, and without the use of chemicals.

Design of the 3,000 sq ft Praise Dominion vegetable garden, 2015

Cultivation plan for the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, 2015

Soon John had conceived the vision of reproducing the Praise Dominion template at other places of worship in Ellenville. Unused plots of land would be transformed into beautiful and productive organic vegetable gardens, so improving the village aesthetic, giving nutritional support to needy residents and raising funds from sales.

A village-wide momentum of enthusiasm for the project’s virtues and feasibility rapidly ensued, as John presented to leaders of six places of worship in Ellenville an outline of the vision. Of the six, leaders of New Testament Church of Jesus Christ, St. Mary’s and St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Shiloh Baptist Church and Congregation Ezrath Israel all declared an interest in embracing a spring 2015 commencement of the initiative.

Wide verbal support for what was now called the “Ellenville Garden Village” project had been established, and John had succeeded with appeals for donations of the materials, tools and seeds necessary to cultivate a vegetable garden at Praise Dominion, with the promise of further donations for works at other locations.

Materials required to create and maintain the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, 2015

However, with the arrival of spring, a lack of volunteer commitment was raising doubt for 2015 being a multi-garden project. The passing of Virginia Torres shocked everybody in late March, 2015, and gave poignancy that we would be creating at Praise Dominion a memorial garden to Virginia. John and Pastor Torres therefore reminded those people who had so welcomed this initiative that the time to participate in the work was upon us. Many promised, but nobody came forward to actually assist with the hard physical work.

It was upon the thaw of April, 2015 that John set in solitude, yet with joy and hope, to the task of clearing and tidying tons of material around the church grounds, in preparation for creating flower beds and transforming a neglected field full of rocks, tree roots and debris into an inspiring 3,000 sq ft organic vegetable garden.

Congregation members sowing flower seeds at Praise Dominion, April, 2015

Unfortunately, the young flower plants at Praise Dominion were repeatedly mown and whacked down by the indiscriminate work of the church’s lawn maintenance contractor, such that John had to accept defeat in late May, 2015 with this element of the project.

Vegetable bed preparation: removing near-surface tree roots

Vegetable bed preparation: removing 50 tons of near-surface rocks, including 100lb boulders

Vegetable bed preparation: refilling beds dug out to a depth of one spit (8 inches) with good, sieved soil (so removing impediment to root growth). John repeated this three- or four-day procedure in creating twenty 12 ft x 4 ft vegetable beds at Praise Dominion, mid April through August, 2015

Happily, an encouraging project development came on April 13, 2015, when the Village of Ellenville appointed John as Manager of Ellenville’s latterly-dormant farmers’ market, so providing an ideal trading outlet for vegetables surplus to the food pantry harvests.

Sufficiently buoyed by wide verbal support for the project and the tangibility of materials donated as to have commenced work on the first vegetable garden, John soon realized the Ellenville scepticism toward new programs. Promises of support are dishonored as routine, as project progress is observed from distance. Active participation is considered only with proof that works will be completed by the proponent.

Undeterred at this revelation, John completed a six-week, seven days per week, dawn-to-dusk mission to create the basis of a vegetable garden, sufficiently discernible as to convince prospective volunteers to now take part in the Praise Dominion project.

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden, gated and protected by deer-proof fencing (fencing donated by Ace Hardware, posts donated by Stoeckeler Realty, Ellenville)

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden, gated and protected by deer-proof fencing

Seedlings of various vegetable varieties ready to be transplanted

By late May, however, John was forced to revise plans for 2015, as the accomplishment of getting the project visibly underway had failed to attract voluntary help; absolutely vital for duplication of the Praise Dominion template elsewhere in Ellenville. The four other places of worship wanting a garden were notified of postponement to 2016.

Kathy, John and their English Mastiff, Bubba, at the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, July, 2015

Following 1,000 hours of John’s labor (of love) over a five-month period of 2015, Praise Dominion now has a beautifully-cultivated 3,000 sq ft garden, providing the food pantry with a nice selection of freshly-harvested organic vegetables and herbs.

Herb garden under construction

The Praise Dominion herb garden, lined with rocks extracted during vegetable bed preparation

Basil maturing in the Praise Dominion herb garden, September, 2015

A second cucumber bed, comprising transplanted plants

Broccoli (foreground) and Swiss chard growing healthily

New broccoli head

Cabbages almost ready for harvest, August, 2015

Having been created with thoroughness and horticultural expertise (as advocated by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Kingston), the Praise Dominion vegetable garden may easily be maintained and re-sown in 2016 and every year thereafter. In this way the church’s food pantry will be well supplied across many months of the year with a bountiful selection of fresh organic vegetables, unavailable to the general public in Ellenville outside of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project.

Rainbow Swiss chard being harvested for the Praise Dominion food pantry (broccoli, background)

Examples of information sheets given to recipients of fresh vegetables in Praise Dominion’s food pantry packages, who, in many cases, were unaware how to prepare such unprocessed foods

Pole beans growing up the fence all around the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, along with peas, garlic (deer-repellent) and sunflowers

Given the twelve-month postponement to 2016 of the re-launch of Ellenville Farmers’ Market, the question of selling surplus harvests was resolved as the Village of Ellenville approved pick-your-own vegetables events (and yard sales) at Praise Dominion.

Plan forming part of the permit application required by the Village of Ellenville to approve pick-your-own vegetables and yard sale events at Praise Dominion, 2015

Poster advertising pick-your-own vegetables and yard sale events at Praise Dominion, 2015

Pick-your-own peppers at the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, August, 2015

Pick-your-own cucumbers at the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, August, 2015

Yard sale held in the parking lot at Praise Dominion, September 5, 2015

A harvest of freshly-picked organic vegetables was also enjoyed at John and Kathy’s wedding reception, held at Praise Dominion in August, 2015.

Kathy and John cutting their wedding cake at Praise Dominion, August, 2015

The delivered promise that is the Praise Dominion organic vegetable garden is being showcased with the intention of overcoming scepticism toward new projects born of Ellenville’s economic decline, and so establishing the partnerships and volunteering commitments necessary for creating new organic vegetable gardens elsewhere in Ellenville in 2016 and 2017.

Tomato plants at the Praise Dominion vegetable (and fruits!) garden, supported by a frame as constructed by Ellenville School District community service volunteers, brothers Devin White and Max Craig

The “Ellenville Garden Village” project already operates in partnership with Ellenville School District, with two young people earning forty hours of school community service credits at the Praise Dominion garden in August, 2015 (indeed, having met their 40-hour quota, brothers Devin White and Max Craig have returned to help in the garden’s completion). This successful collaboration will be developed from 2016 onward, involving placement at several locations in the village.

Sunflowers surrounding the Praise Dominion garden, with Ellenville School District community service volunteer, Max Craig, September, 2015

Detailed cultivation plan of the Praise Dominion vegetable garden, 2015

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden (from top left, above bed 19), 2015

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden (from top center), 2015

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden (from top right, above bed 20), 2015

John is particularly keen to receive a post-showcase commitment for 2016 from the Cooperative Extension of Cornell University, Kingston, given their objective to support community horticultural projects in economically-depressed areas of Ulster County.

The Praise Dominion vegetable garden serves to the memory of flowering plant-lover Virginia Torres, inspiration behind the initiative to create a garden at Praise Dominion.