“Teaching people to get in the dirt and garden hands-on nourishes my heart and soul,” said Dawn Charvat, a garden mentor for the Clark County Homegrown Gardens (CCHG) program.

Charvat got involved with the program through her Naturally Beautiful Backyards volunteer training. As a garden mentor, she teaches low income individuals how to garden organically using sustainable, earth-friendly methods.

The Homegrown Gardens program began in 2007 at the Center for Community Health for WIC clients. WIC, short for Women, Infants and Children, is a government program aimed at helping pregnant women and children under the age of five get proper basic nutrition. But the program is limited in the foods it provides — fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, are rare. So CCHG was born. Its goal is teaching families with limited means how to organically grow their own fresh vegetables.

The CCHG program, funded with a grant from the Department of Ecology, provides all the materials for a four by eight foot raised garden bed. This includes soil, seeds and plants, a few simple garden tools, the book All New Square Foot Gardening and a garden mentor to teach and encourage the new gardeners. Compost bins and worm bins are also provided along with the education to use them. This gives people the opportunity to learn how to turn garden and food waste into amendments for their gardens ­— bringing the project full circle.

With the help of a garden mentor, each family “adopts” a garden bed at a host site, learns to plant and tend the garden and gets to harvest anything that grows. Ten beds were planted in 2007, helping ten families. The program was so successful that, in the second year, 37 additional beds were installed. Host sites include churches and schools.

Charvat works side by side with one of the host organizations, Whipple Creek Ministries. At this site, there are 18 garden beds, a mixture of community and church. Ten beds are for the community program and six are tended by the church to provide vegetables for the food bank, as well as an “adopted” family.

Candice Burch, one of the gardeners in the program, is excited about the project.

“It’s a really nice experience to have someone who knows what they’re doing…even just to talk to,” she said. This summer she has already harvested zucchini, green beans, lemon cucumbers, Swiss chard, spinach and lots of tomatoes — all from a four by eight foot space. Without the program, Burch said she wouldn’t be able to grow anything.

The CCHG project promotes healthy eating, exercise and family togetherness. People are more likely to eat fresh vegetables when they are available, accessible and free.

“It’s taught me a lot about nutrition,” Burch said, holding a bunch of freshly picked beets, “I wouldn’t be trying these beets if I hadn’t been out here.” Her house backs up to the church property, so any time she wants a salad, all she has to do is walk over to the garden and get some, she said. Besides learning about nutrition, Burch, who qualifies for the program because of a disability, said having access to fresh vegetables has helped out on the food bill and taught her new ways to grow things.

In 2008, the Health Department expanded the CCHG program and Clark County Solid Waste became involved by creating an additional 30 beds, most of which are in the Rose Village neighborhood.

Currently, there are 45 new beds in Clark County, but only about 30 of them have been adopted by qualifying households. Fifteen beds in Washougal, Battle Ground and Hazel Dell still need families to tend them. Besides the new gardens put in this year, there are around 68 other beds around the county in various stages from previous phases of the project. The DOE grant, administered by Clark County Office of Sustainability, was awarded to put in 100 additional raised beds, worm and compost bins by the end of 2010.

Whipple Creek still has three gardens needing families to adopt them. It’s not too late this year to participate in the project, said Kris Alexander, who runs the program. Anyone qualifying for any type of government assistant will qualify. Families who join now stay in the program through the end of this year and also through the 2010 growing season.

Angie Rhew, a mentor-in-training at Whipple Creek, became involved through the church.

“I love to be with gardeners,” she said, “because I never get tired of talking about gardening.” It is the first year the church has hosted the gardens so there is a learning curve, she said, but they are all learning together.

Alexander both mentors and trains other people to serve as mentors for the various gardens. Alexander is already looking ahead to next year for additional host sites, interested families and more mentors.

Burch said she is already looking forward to next year and plans on staying in the program as long as she can.
Anyone interested in adopting a garden or hosting five to 15 beds can contact Kris Alexander at 360-397-6118 ext. 5654 or email kris.alexander@clark.wa.gov.

Ruth Zschomler is a contributor to The Voice.