Hello everyone! My name is Kristina Ralston, and I am the volunteer coordinator for the Giving Garden this summer! My family and I (husband, Andrew, two children, Sylvia (12) and Gavin (10), and our cockapoo, Finnley) live near Mendota Heights, and are happy to be attending church again at Gloria Dei. I look forward to being a part of the gardening community at Gloria Dei and to contributing back to our community in this important (and delicious!) way. Truth be told, I am more of an aspirational gardener than actually having a green thumb to speak of, so I welcome any tips, tricks and tactics you have to encourage the growth of tasty – and not too droopy! – vegetables in our garden beds (I signed up to plant one myself). Thanks in advance to all of the volunteers who have offered their time, energy and resources in making this horticultural experiment a success – we so appreciate all of you!

Thanks to everyone who signed up this past week for our Giving Garden—we have almost all the plots accounted for and a few have already been planted for the season. We have plenty of spots open for weeding/general upkeep help throughout the summer, and to help harvest/transport vegetables later in the summer. Keep an eye on our Giving Garden Sign-Up and sign up as you are available throughout the summer. We donate all produce to the Francis Basket Food Shelf in Saint Paul, and their primary/desired items are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce/greens and fresh herbs. Kristina Ralston, Giving Garden coordinator, will be at church this weekend to plant her garden bed and take a few pictures to share, so please come on down and say hello! Thanks to everyone who’s signed up to plant, to our custodian, Clayton, for getting the irrigation up and running, and to our communications extraordinaire, Linda, for helping get the word out. Email any questions to Kristina. Read our Giving Garden blog to get to know Kristina, and watch it for updates throughout the summer.

Sign up online and give gardening a try this summer! We promise it’ll be easy, fun, and a unique and impactful way to give back to our community, as we donate all produce through the summer to the Francis Basket Food Shelf in Saint Paul. If you have questions before you sign up, please email Kristina.