PORT ANGELES — What do you with a big mowing headache?
If you’re the members of the Vineyard Church, you donate half of it — about 12,750 square feet — to serve as a community garden.
An organizational meeting for the Vineyard Community Garden is set at the Vineyard Church, 3415 S. Peabody St., in Port Angeles at 3 p.m. Sunday.
At least 45 plots, 10-by-10-feet each, are available for gardening.
The church “had a big space that they just have to mow every summer, so they decided, why not dig it up and plant food,” said Karen Bert, a farmer who owns Black Sheep farm near Freshwater Bay and who — along with architect Hank Gibson — is spearheading the development of the community garden.
The rent will be $25 per year, plus a small monthly charge for water — probably about $3 per month, Bert said.
Plots are also available on a sliding scale for low-income gardeners.
A compost pile and tool shed will be part of the facility.
In the future, the group hopes to install raised beds for people who have difficulty bending over.
The plots are “probably not big enough for all a person’s vegetable needs,” Bert said. “It’s enough to have salad.”
But she and Gibson hope to see the garden become an educational tool — while helping gardeners grow their own food.
“Community gardens are more about how to teach people to grow food,” Gibson said. “You can’t grow a lot of food in a 10-by-10 plot, but you can learn a lot.”
An anonymous donor recently provided deer fencing — tough plastic netting — and the ground has been tilled, also by donation.
Volunteers are needed to move rocks and haul compost, Bert said.
For more information, phone Gibson at 360-457-3744 or Bert at 360-928-0214.
