Serving in the Garden

Serving in the Garden

Growing up in a suburban town in southern California, agricultural interest is not something that many people from my hometown take a liking to. I would not say it is because they would not like to, but the hills in which Walnut (my hometown) resides makes it a little more difficult to care for a sustainable garden. There are many rabbits, coyotes, squirrels, harsh soil, and more, all of which make it hard to think of beginning a garden. After taking an Environmental Science class in high school, I wanted to try and create a small vegetable garden, but never had enough time to stay on top of the upkeep. When I heard about the opportunity to help out with the Westmont Community Garden, I was more than excited to sign up.

For the past month and a half I have been helping a former Westmont student, Anthony Waldrop, start up a community garden that would help supply food to the Dining Commons. When I began working with Anthony, it was the beginning of the garden, the start of the whole project to grow food for Westmont's DC. We began by clearing the plots of all brush and weeds, lots and lots of weeds. When we finished with weeding, we moved on to making our own compost. I can now say I know how to manage my own composting pile, one that does not smell to badly might I say. While we waited for the compost to turn into good soil, we went back to the basics of pulling weeds. When the compost was ready Anthony and I started digging double ditches, creating the rows of plants you see in a garden, mixing in our composted soil. Once the rows were finished Anthony transplanted the lettuce that he had been growing at his house and together we planted a row of three different types of carrots. Since then we have been clearing more of the land and keeping up with the weeding so the garden can continue growing.

Working in the garden was something that fell into my lap at the right moment. I am a fourth year at Westmont and for the past three years I have been on the Westmont Women's Soccer team, I decided to not play for my fourth and final year. With all the free time I was not sure what I was going to do with myself, all I wanted was to be outside doing some kind of activity. When I heard about the opportunity to work at a garden, I knew that it was a service I would truly enjoy. Having some knowledge on the environment from high school, and for years I have wanted to learn more about how to build my own garden. In environmental science we learned in which ways we can respect the earth and after taking that class it was easy to see how many people do not. Plantinga notes that non-Christians respect the earth better than Christians because they see the earth as a God. "Thus, when it comes to caring for the earth, for example, non-Christians often lead the way, showing more enthusiasm for good earthkeeping than conservative Christians who claim that the 'earth is the Lord's,' but who don't act or vote that way, " (pg 111). Working in a garden and being able to help produce some of God's gifts was just another eye opener on how important taking care of our planet is. We must remember that "the world, after all, belongs to God and is in the process of being redeemed by God," (p 119), and maybe more Christians will learn to respect his earth more. For me, being able to see the garden from the early stages to the middle stages, and hopefully seeing the final product, made me gain a whole new respect for earth, our Father's earth. More Christians