Riding the Weather Roller Coaster

Text & photos by Brian Vick, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

March 17: Winged (or Flaming) Euonymus branches stand ready to support sugar snap peas.

We started our formal schedule of Saturday and Monday morning volunteer sessions in the Community Kitchen Garden on April 12, and we’ve had a wild ride on the Central Virginia weather roller coaster (snow, heat, then frost).

At this point we’ve planted red potatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, leeks, red onions, Swiss chard, turnips and beets, and we’ve done a ton of work preparing beds and pathways. So far this season we’ve had assistance  from 45 volunteers! (six HandsOn Greater Richmond registrants, four Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden volunteers (Catherine Doucette, Sara Buczkowski, Nack Pring and Gary Pantaleo), longtime Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden seasonal gardener Lisa Shiffert and her son Wylie, three Starbucks partners led by Heidi Schlaudt, and 30 Bank of America volunteers. Look for a future blog post on Bank of America visit.

April 10: Sugar snap peas are up!

We’ve also already made one delivery of fresh produce to FeedMore! But we didn’t grow it… it was fourteen pounds of fresh broccoli raab donated from the garden of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Member Vincent Pustizzi.

Broccoli raab donated to FeedMore’s Community Kitchen by Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Member Vincent Pustizzi.