In our community garden, someone wrote “grow your soul” on the billboard next to Hope Garden. The Shepherds of Good Hope is a mission “dedicated to compassion”. Located in downtown Ottawa, ON, the mission has several programs, one of them is the soup kitchen. And that is where the community garden plots come into the picture. By way of the talent, commitment, time and generosity of volunteers and donors, some six plots of the community garden are known as “Hope Garden”.
We learned about Hope Garden when we started to tend our single plot. Hope Garden is managed (extremely well) by volunteer Barbara Harris. It is a garden to emulate, if you can. Things grow so well and look very healthy in their plots. There was an article in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper recently about Hope Garden.
This past weekend there as a garden party at Hope Garden. It was a beautiful day. You could stroll through the garden and see what they are growing this year.
There was a quiz about plants, species, latin names. I left that one to others to complete. There are many volunteers at Hope Garden. Some are in charge of specific plants while some are “drop-ins”. Many businesses donate goods and services.
They keep meticulous records of what is harvested.
You could enjoy food and beverages while walking around the garden. I went to the party but also spent time in our own garden plot listening to (well singing along with and maybe doing a little dancing) the music that carried across the gardens as I worked. Now that was a very pleasurable garden visit. But then again, aren’t they all.
Growing beans, growing your soul and in the case of Hope Garden helping other souls.
Do you find gardening good for your soul?
Barb's True Stories 
That sounds like more fun than growing your own garden especially if you can learn from all the other volunteers. Gardening was good for the pocket book when the kids were growing up and we shared a garden at Lumsden.
And you were good gardeners too. But it is a great deal of work, for sure. This year it makes economic sense for us IF you don’t count the large capital investments in years before…like the irrigation system and the 10 cubic metres of mushroom compost. And if you don’t factor in labour. Oh, wait. It really makes no sense in terms of dollars and cents.