"Laughing all the way to the (FOOD) bank!"

The Sharing Gardens turned 17 years old on April 15th of this year! We began in the spring of 2009 at Alpine Park; then began gardening at our present site, in Monroe, Oregon in 2010; purchased the land and farmhouse here in 2013 and moved in once we finished renovations in the summer of 2014. It's been a journey with lots of bends in the road full of both challenges and blessings. This post gives a peek at how our project has evolved over the seasons and an overview of our current situation.

Here's our farmhouse before renovations (built in 1875, the oldest house in Monroe that's still lived in). Llyn is loading mint-straw into wheelbarrows to use as mulch/fertilizer on the Gardens located behind the farmhouse.

Here's our dear home after renovations. We planted the Red Hot Pokers in the foreground underneath where that mint straw had been.

We founded the Sharing Gardens under the belief that food should be a basic right; not something to be bought or sold. We are a 'community garden' but, instead of separate plots, with a membership fee, we all garden together (no fees). The food that is grown is shared amongst the people who support the project, while the surplus is shared through local food charities.  Overview and Benefits of the Sharing Gardens

In the beginning, we were almost the only gardeners in our area sharing produce with the food charities. Much of the produce that our local Pantry had for distribution was rather nasty rejects provided by grocery stores for the tax-write off they received in exchange. Some produce was purchased new but it was still of low quality (and never organically grown).

Here's Llyn with our very first donation to the S. Benton Food Pantry. More than half of it actually came from our friends who had more established gardens.

Once we got established, our donations grew to about three tons per year! Here we are in the early days with one week's lettuce donation to Local Aid in Junction City.

Gradually our donations grew and grew till, at our peak, and for several years that we measured everything the garden produced, we were growing about 6,000 pounds per season! All shared freely. Nothing ever sold. (Actually, for three seasons we had a CSA - community supported agriculture where people paid an annual subscription and received a box of produce each week for half the year but we dropped the CSA as soon as possible as it never felt aligned with our deepest beliefs that no one should ever be charged money for food. Llyn's mother has made some of Llyn's inheritance available prior to Judy's passing. This is our primary source of income these days. It is our belief that our generosity will be supported and so far this has held true.)

Generosity creates abundance...Service Learning students sharing in the harvest at the end of their volunteer session.

Within a few years, other gardeners began bringing their surplus produce. Also, produce was gleaned from farmer's markets and other sources. Eventually this support grew to the point that, during peak garden-harvest time (August - October) our closest Pantry has far less need of our donations (sometimes it's hard to find room on their distribution tables!)  

Tomatoes, cantaloupe and greens donated to the Pantry in 2015.

I overheard a nice comment at the Pantry just the other day as I helped restock the produce mid-morning. A customer said that she's been to many, many Pantries over the years but that the one in Monroe is her favorite because they/we "always have the freshest and most abundant produce". She said, "I don't want to just be eating canned and processed foods. I so appreciate that I can get a variety of fresh produce here!". It's gratifying to know that the Sharing Gardens has been such a big part of bringing fresh produce to Monroe's Food Pantry.
 

By the time our peppers and tomatoes are coming on strong, other local gardeners have lots to donate to the Pantry, so the volunteers in the gardens, Chris and myself, receive the majority of the Garden's  abundance in peak garden times.

We've had a fluctuating team of volunteers through the years. Sometimes as few as one or two per session; at most we had about six people join us. More than that proved too difficult to manage. Mistakes were made, and Chris and I spent so much time overseeing the volunteers that we didn't get to do much gardening or socializing ourselves on volunteer days! So now, from mid-spring to late fall, we have two sessions a week with 3-4 volunteers each time and that seems to work quite well. 

Nowadays we average two volunteer sessions per week, with three to four people per session.Volunteers help with whatever needs doing and share in the harvest. Volunteering and Garden Location

 

Because we're not in competition to get  our crops to market, the Sharing Gardens produce is 'slow grown'. We don't use commercial fertilizers to hasten growth (which can lead to an increase in water-weight, lower density of nutrients and the plants' greater susceptibility to diseases and pests). Our produce is sweet, tender and full of vitality.

From the beginning, the Sharing Gardens has always had a focus on education; we love to share what we have learned from experience (Chris has been an organic grower for close to 60 years!) and Llyn has been a writer from her earliest days; we make a great team! Our educational outreach goes first and foremost to the people who join us in the Gardens through the volunteer program. These folks get hands-on training.

 Our website reaches hundreds of people daily, worldwide. This spring, the site surpassed the million-views mark and shows no signs of slowing down. With close to 300 published posts, we've covered a lot of topics! The majority are "How to" articles based on our first-hand experience. The site has always been (and will always be) 'ad-free'.

Chris and I have both spent time over at Monroe's Pantry (it shares our same parking lot) talking with people and teaching them about healthy eating. We encourage people to try new fruits and vegetables, suggesting ways to prepare them.

A sign we posted with our kale donation...

Striped German tomato

A funny story from the early days:

Because Heirloom tomatoes often 'look funny', with deep lobes and unusual colors in many varieties, Pantry-goers were leery of trying them. They would reach for the uniform-sized, pale red varieties with a mealy consistency and no flavor because 'they were familiar'.

For a few weeks, Chris and I stood at the Pantry with pocket knives in-hand and we'd slice off samples our our tomatoes for people to try. 

At first people hesitated (and to be fair, some varieties with greenish shoulders don't look too appetizing!). But their responses were so gratifying each time they got over their fears. "Wow, that's amazing!", "That's how tomatoes are supposed  to taste!" "I haven't had a tomato that tasted that good since I ate out of my grandma's garden!".

We knew that we'd successfully converted the crowds when, after a few weeks we saw them by-passing the anemic commercial toms and overheard them arguing among themselves about which of the Heirloom varieties we'd provided were their favorites. Wonderful!

Though we love the knobby, strangely colored varieties we grow, to the uninitiated they may seem ugly and unappetizing.

Another way that we are teachers in our community is through the Service Learning program offered through Oregon State University (OSU). Students volunteer for four hours per term in a project relevant to their studies and, after completing a presentation to their classmates receive college credit.

Since our first groups came in 2012, we have been blessed by the students' presence (and labor!) as we pass on a bit of knowledge about growing food without the use of chemicals, commercial fertilizers or animal by-products. Service Learning: A new model for our schools?

The Q&A session with snacks is always a highlight of the Service Learning mornings. We love to feel their enthusiasm for making the world a better place and it feels good to be drawn-forth and queried for the knowledge we've gained over the years. (Pic is from our cozy living room).

Students help us with a variety of tasks. Here they are weeding a garlic patch.

Sam is sifting soil in the foreground; students are prepping beds along the side while Llyn and Margaret plant seeds in the back.

Shelling dried beans is a favorite activity for students (and our volunteers) alike. Very meditative and satisfying.

Some kids get into the big-muscle activities (like turning compost). We sure appreciate their help!! (For more great pics and a deeper explanation of OSU's Service Learning program:  Service Learning: A new model for our schools?)

We grow almost 100% of our own 'starts' and share hundreds of plants in the community each season through school-gardens, recipients at the food pantry and other local gardeners. We like to support folks who are growing food to share (not sell). 

Early years...2011 'starts' (lettuce, sunflowers, cabbage and more...)

Lua and Llyn with a fraction of the 'starts' we've donated to her amazing school gardens. Luckiamute Charter school garden program. Lua has developed a program that goes from K-8th grade in which the students get hands-on learning about gardening and harvesting fruits and vegetables; growing native plants and supporting wildlife. The students learn how to prepare the foods they grow (along with other healthy ingredients) for tasty, simple snacks that expand their 'food vocabulary'. Lua is amazing!

We grow, process and save almost all of the seeds we use in the garden. This is a major focus of our teaching-posts. Because of the 'economy' of seed production, one seed can generate literally thousands of offspring. To learn more:  Basic Seed-Saving on a Small Scale

Part of our 2025 kidney bean and blue corn harvests ready to finish their drying process in baskets on shelves above our wood stove. These beans and grains can be eaten and/or used to grow future crops. The 'economy' of seeds..."From the one, many...".

We always have way more seed than we can use and share through various networks. 

Part of the seeds that we grew and processed ourselves in 2025 and donated to the Agrarian Sharing Network  - a wonderful, regional network equally dedicated to keeping our food-system commercial-free.

We continue to develop low-tech, small-scale methods for saving storage crops such as dried corn, sorghum, amaranth, and dried beans to help feed us through the leaner months when gardens are not producing as abundantly. Local food: Grow your own beans and grains 

Heirloom corns come in many colors. Corn is "promiscuous" and cross-pollinates easily. Here are crosses between Hooker's Blue and Golden Bantam. Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn'

As supply chains for commercial fertilizers tightened with the onset of war in the Middle East this past winter, we felt such gratitude that our methods of veganic agriculture continue to serve us well. Locally Sustainable Gardening in the Face of Supply-Chain Shortages

This is our eighth season without purchasing any commercial fertilizers or animal by-products (bone meal/blood meal etc), and without using animal manures for fertilizer. 

The majority of our fertility comes from: composted leaves, lawn-clippings and kitchen scraps. We also use ashes and coffee-grounds. We've begun experimenting with comfrey tea too (more on that to come).  

People often comment that our plants seem to be "glowing from within". We feed the soil and the plants take care of themselves! Because our food isn't forced to grow quickly (no commercial fertilizers), the plant cells are thicker and the plants are more resistant to disease and insect infestations. 

We are able to grow abundant crops without commercial fertilizers and animal by-products or manures. For a detailed description of our methods: Making Your Own "Veganic" Potting Soil in Your Greenhouse Paths - Using Worms (Broccoli and peppers in the foreground with corn in the rear. The red plant is a volunteer 'Hopi red-dye amaranth' which is edible and we harvest, dry and grind it for use in cooking.)

Another part of our mission is to encourage more people to live in a spirit of generosity, reciprocity and trust that, the more we shift from a 'transactional' (buying and selling) mentality to a 'gifting', relational ecology, the healthier all of us (and the natural world) will be. In this spirit, we maintain another website that is full of uplifting examples of the power of sharing, generosity, and caring for Creation. To visit the site: All Things Sharing

We feel incredibly blessed to be on this garden journey and look forward to continuing on this path of growing and sharing. Thanks for coming along!

Sharing Gardens founders, Chris Burns and Llyn Peabody in our front yard kale patch, 2017

 

Garden Bounty! Spring Garden Digest

Good day to all of you reading this - May of 2025. Spring weather is fully upon us now, with lilacs blooming, grass growing by the minute, plants we started back in January and February finally getting planted in the ground. It's a time of great bounty and beauty! 

We'll write a full garden update soon but here are some time-relevant posts for mid-spring for our area in the southern Willamette Valley, Oregon (USDA zone 7B). Hopefully you'll find some information you can use in your garden too! (image: Jen, with spring's lettuce-bounty!)

How to Build a Bean Tipi (teepee): Bean tipis are an attractive way to grow pole beans and an efficient use of space. They're also fun for young people to hide out in the shade at the peak of summer. As beans ripen, they hang down inside the tipi and can be harvested from within. (image: Llyn in our first tipi built in 2009 at the Alpine Park Sharing Garden)

Organic Solution to Slugs: In the early days of the Sharing Gardens we had horrible problems with slugs; sometimes they would devour a whole row of newly transplanted lettuce or cabbage - overnight. We finally got them under control using a method which is approved for use in organically grown farms and gardens: iron phosphate (trade name - Sluggo). Click Here to read more about it.

Blue corn in the foreground and Kassaby sorghum in the background; both drying on their stalks before being harvested for further drying and processing.

In recent years, we've been developing methods for small-scale grain and bean growing and processing. These methods might not be efficient for a solo gardener to use (because of the time-consuming nature of the processing) but in a community-setting such as the Sharing Gardens, 'many hands make light work'. (right: Golden Amaranth - grown for use in our hot cereal mix)

Dried grain and bean processing is a fun, relaxing way for Sharing Garden participants to help with the harvest and enjoy conversations. Here we are, shucking corn.

Bean and Grain processing have become favorite activities for our volunteers in the fall as people enjoy sitting around and doing this hand-work while they visit. These processes are adaptable to any community setting such as schools, senior centers or churches. Click on the links to learn how to grow and process: Scarlet Runner beans, Sorghum for grain and flour, and/or Blue Corn (which has up to 30% more protein than yellow corn!). (image: Pulling husks off of blue corn)

More community grain processing...

Why Sunflowers are Great for Bees: Apparently, the pollen from sunflowers has the ability to strengthen the immune systems of bees! If left to mature, the seeds provide food for birds in the autumn when many are in need of storing up extra fat and protein for migrations. Left in place through the winter, sunflower stalks provide habitat and shelter for many insects and their eggs. And they're just beautiful! Be sure to plant 'true' sunflowers; non-hybrids, like Mammoth Russians or Autumn Beauties as hybrids are often not as nutritious for birds and insects as heirloom varieties. (image: Chris with a Mammoth Russian sunflower head. That's a lot of birdseed!)

Sunflowers are great to plant with children because the seeds are big enough for them to easily handle. Here, a classroom of preschoolers planted a huge patch of sunflowers that was just glorious when they all began to bloom in late summer.

Some years we have harvested and dried the sunflower heads to feed to birds throughout the winter. Nowadays, because we're drying so many grains and beans (and onions, foreground) we prefer to leave the sunflowers on their stalks. The birds finish eating them before winter comes but they need that extra fat and protein to prepare for their winter migrations.

Do I Need to Buy Seed Potatoes or Can I Just Grow Potatoes from the Grocery Store? Here, in early May, it may be too late to buy seed potatoes from your local produce store unless they are already showing signs of sprouting. Potatoes don't sprout in response to day-length or soil-temperature but have a natural dormancy period which they must pass through before they sprout again. But if store-bought potatoes, or ones you have had in storage are already sprouting, here are some tips for how to turn them into 'seed potatoes' for planting: Sprouting Potatoes? What to Do (image: Sprouted potatoes, ready for planting.) We pull them out of the dark when sprouts are small like this. Being exposed to mild, indirect light stops the sprouting process, turns the potatoes green and hardens-off the sprouts so they're less likely to break when planted. Once planted, potatoes resume growing.

Potatoes with beautiful sprouts, ready for planting.

Chemical contamination of compost and soil: This is a timely post as this is the season that people often purchase potting soil from an urban composting facility (that turns yard and construction waste into compost and soil), or try to amend their garden beds with manure found for free.

Unfortunately, some urban composting facilities let treated lumber into their compost process (not on purpose, but it happens...). Treated lumber can contain arsenic and other persistent toxic ingredients which accumulate in their finished compost. Only purchase compost or soil from trusted, tested facilities. (image: tomato seedlings showing classic signs of herbicide poisoning).

Also beware of horse manure (composted or not)! Horses, unlike cows, goats and rabbits, have a simple digestive system that won't break down the herbicides often sprayed on hay and other horse-food crops. Unless horse manure is thoroughly composted (this can take several years) herbicides can persist in their manure.

In 2017, we made the mistake of mixing un-composted horse manure into our potting mix (we thought it was composted) and we lost three batches of tomato, pepper and sunflower seedlings! We added this same manure to some of our raised beds which stunted and killed the beans we planted there and continued to be a problem even after we replaced the soil (some of the herbicides lingered in the beds).

This horse manure that Bella and Adri were loading into buckets) was thoroughly composted.

This first post (Herbicide Contamination?) describes symptoms to look for, and this second post (Herbicide Contamination Update) reveals the likely culprit, an herbicide from the family called: Chlorpyrifos-Wickipedia,  Chlopyrifos Facts - Pesticide Action network.  

If you're going to use horse manure on your garden be sure you know the source of the hay the horses were eating (was their feed raised organically?) and how long the manure has been composting. Or, better yet, avoid using it altogether.

The year we suffered from herbicide contamination (from uncomposted horse manure used in our potting mix) Steve Rose came to our rescue. Here he is with some of the many tomato 'starts' he'd grown to share at our local food pantry. He provided all our tomato starts that year (after three failed attempts to start our own!).

We have now switched to 100% 'veganic' gardening (no livestock manures or animal by-products) with amazing results! The contamination from horse manure was the final catalyst for weaning us off this source of fertility. (image: Sept 2023 Sunship greenhouse, grown with no commercial fertilizers, livestock manures or animal by-products). Making Your Own "Veganic" Potting Soil in Your Greenhouse Paths - Using Worms

Our 'Ark' greenhouse, May 29, 2023 - also grown 'veganically'.

Important Sharing Gardens LINKS: It's come to our attention that people viewing our site on cell phones are sometimes not able to see the Links we have on our side-bar. Here are most of them!
Overview and Benefits of the Sharing Gardens,
Garden Location and Volunteer Info
Meet the Founders - Contact Us
Wish List
Mission Statement
Videos About the Sharing Gardens
So, you want to start a Sharing Garden!

For the full list, Click Here: FAQ's - Links 

 Enjoy Spring's unfolding!

Apples in bloom; the promise of fruit in autumn.