The Rotary Club of Gastonia is several steps closer to feeding the community. The Rotary Community Garden got a jump start Thursday, thanks to help from the Home Depot.
One hundred volunteers from surrounding Home Depot stores and 100 Rotarians and community members combined efforts for a full work day in the garden, which is at 406 E. Franklin Blvd.
They built 24 raised garden beds, filled more than half of them with compost and installed irrigation. The task force also laid gravel for the garden’s two main paths and mulch in between the beds, and got started on a storage shed, said Gastonia Rotary President Will Current Jr. Separate contractors also began laying brick columns for the surrounding fence, which the city is helping to finance. Wrought-iron will be added between the columns later.
“I don’t think we can give enough praise for the Home Depot team and what they accomplished, how hard they worked, and their knowledge and expertise when they got here,” Current said.
Each garden bed will be sponsored by a local organization, which will handle the planting, watering, weeding and harvesting, and one of the plots will be dedicated to military families and veterans. The produce will be distributed to area nonprofits.
Home Depot recently awarded a $20,000 regional grant to the Rotary project, which went toward lumber, irrigation and fencing costs, said Trey Pruitt, head of the Rotary garden building committee.
“It’s just a big boost to the whole project,” said Current. “It allows us to get the structure of the garden built and actually get things planted for a summer crop. It accelerated our schedule greatly.”
Rotary members helped with the garden rather than holding their regular 12:30 p.m. meeting, and they served lunch for all of the Home Depot volunteers.
Home Depot’s involvement with the project is part of its SPRING Into Service campaign, which aims to plant gardens to provide fruits and vegetables for homeless veterans across the country.
You can reach lifestyles reporter Andrea Honaker at ahonaker@gastongazette.com or 704-869-1840. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/andi384 and read her blog at lifelessons.blogs.gastongazette.com.