The Week 5 edition of the Plant-A-Row bulletin just came out, and guess what? We are their garden spotlight!
Here’s an excerpt of what they said:
Our Garden Spot Light this week is St. Ann’s Knights of Columbus Garden of Mercy.
The St. Ann’s Council of the Knights of Columbus’ Garden of Mercy has been part of Plant a Row Lehigh Valley since we began in 2016. Their garden is dedicated to PARLV, with all the produce they harvest going to recipients of PARLV.
Their original Garden of Mercy was located at plot #10 at Boogie Community Garden in Lower Macungie. In 2020 they expanded the garden to two plots, #s 8 and 9. They had also received permission to establish a garden on the grounds at the Church of St. Ann in Emmaus. While maintaining the garden plots at Bogie Community Garden they began work on the new garden, which was a combined effort between the Knights and the scouts. The garden was completed and the crops were coming up before the fence was in place. The Knights came out one morning to find that the deer had eaten their plants. Fortunately, they still had the two plots at the Bogie Community Garden, which provided 1,177 lbs. of produce that year.
The Garden of Mercy is also a drop off location, accepting donation on Saturday mornings until 11:00 AM. The garden has 4 primary recipients: New Bethany Ministries, Cay Galgon Life House, The Nehemiah Wall/Greater Shiloh Church Food Pantry and the Whitehall Food Pantry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal church. They also provide donations to the Allentown Rescue Mission, Casa Guadalupe, City Limits Assembly of God, and Jordan Lutheran Church.
Once the fence was in place, some women from the parish planted perennials around the fence, which attract a variety of pollinators which are so important to a garden. They continue to maintain the perennials and also plant a variety of annuals around the garden each year.
You can read the PARLV bulletin for this week by clicking here.
FUN FACT: St. Ann’s Garden of Mercy supplies at least 40% of the fresh produce for the PARLV food pantries and is expected to be THE top garden producer this year!
YOU CAN HELP US ACHIEVE THIS GOAL – If you have overflow vegetables or fruit from your home garden, please consider donating to the parish garden harvest–you’ll be helping so many in our communities. Just drop off your bagged garden vegetables at our parish garden on Saturday mornings by 11am. They will be weighed and counted in with our garden totals. Thank you to all who donate and all who help and manage our Garden of Mercy!