Director of Operations of the St. Charles Community Garden

                   Left: Volunteer Director of the Dorothy Day Center, Marcus Evans, and his daughter, use an electric roto-tiller to prepare the organic garden.  Right: The first sunflower of the season        

Ready to grow!  April 12, 2008                                     New compost bin

Left: A group of volunteers till the soil and prepare the beds for planting, St. Charles Community Garden, April 2008.  Right: The Garden in mid June 2008                                                                                                                                                

Left: Red Amaranth, zucchini, and tomatoes     Right: Borage-an annual also known as starflower.  The blue/purple blooms are edible, good in salads and taste like cucumber. Borage is a companion plant for tomatoes and gives them a sweeter flavor when it grows nearby

Volunteers planting a pear tree                            St. Charles Community Garden, mid-May 

Zucchini Squash                                                       Cucumber vines climbing

Sunflowers:  The sunflowers have helped to create a microclimate within our garden.  We were still harvesting leafy lettuce in late June due to the shade from the sunflowers.  Companion planting is highly encouraged in our garden.

Left: A child eating a tomato from the garden.  We do not use herbicides, pesticides or commercial fertilizers.  The food is safe to eat when we harvest it. Right:  Director of the Dorothy Day Center, Marcus Evans and son.

The Dorothy Day Center