How We Live - Meet the Sharing Gardens Founders

Update: To read this post with an amendment that covers 2012 - 2015, CLICK HERE











Many people have expressed curiosity about Chris' and my living situation. How do we afford to have the time to dedicate the many hours a week we devote to the "Sharing Gardens"? Why do we so rarely invite anyone over to visit us in our home? Are we independently wealthy or just very frugal?

About three years ago, at the same time we were getting the Alpine "Sharing Gardens" started, Chris and I decided to seriously downsize. We were spending about $800/month on rent and utilities (not to mention all the other costs of running a household). Our house was way too big for our needs and we felt disheartened at seeing all that rent money being spent for nothing tangible that could grow in any meaningful way. We put up some posters around town advertising for a new place to live. The first people to respond had the perfect situation: An 8' x 40' travel trailer - hooked up to plumbing, sewer, and electricity, in a little grove of trees overlooking 400 acres of farmland. It was a place we could rent for a small fee and several hours a month of work-trade. Free from the stress of meeting such a big monthly financial obligation we could slow down our pace of living and devote our energies to the "Sharing Gardens" and other service projects.

We live a simple life. We rise early and spend time with our spiritual studies; acknowledging all we have to be grateful for, getting quiet inside so we can listen for guidance, then we do some yoga on the floor. Most mornings we choose a simple project, preferring to get one or two things accomplished without haste or pressure, rather than facing a huge list of tasks that can never all get done in the time allotted. On any given day, we may not get much done but, like the Tortoise, we find that - "Slow and steady wins the race." Reflecting back I can see just how much we have accomplished unaccompanied by the sense of hurry and pressure that so many people experience, engaged in the usual busy, modern lifestyle. Afternoons usually include a nap, or at least a rest-time; a pause before taking on an afternoon project, going for a walk, computer-time or other household maintenance tasks.

Tomato sauce - 2009

We are ovo-lacto vegetarians, eating plant-foods, eggs and dairy products. This is not a religion for us but we notice we feel better eating this way and know it helps us live lighter on the planet (and easier on the pocket-book!) Through the "Sharing Gardens" we are able to grow a high percentage of our food. Mid-August through Thanksgiving are the busiest times for us as we convert the harvest into stored goods that will see us through to next year's garden-season. In Autumn we also fill our pantry with gleaned fruits and nuts and wild mushrooms foraged in the woods near our home. We keep our two food-dehydrators going almost non-stop during this time and 'can' a variety of foods and juices.

Loft-bed with root cellar below.

Living in such a small space can be a challenge at times, especially in the wet, cold, winter months when we spend more time inside. A few months back, we removed our dining room table and chairs and began eating "Japanese-style", sitting on the floor to make room for morning Yoga. We have a plastic table-cloth we pull out to sort seeds, do craft projects or other things we used to do on the table. The side-benefit of this arrangement is that all the "ups" and "downs", several times a day, for meals etc has also increased our fitness and flexibility. But it has also limited who we can have over for extended visits, as not everyone is up for these forced calisthenics!

We appreciate as well, the blessings of this lifestyle. It has prevented us from accumulating excess possessions (as a friend put it, who also lives in a travel trailer, "You empty your pockets and its time to clean house!"). It has encouraged us to be more organized as well. For example, we have many of our shoes hanging from a peg-board, we hang plastic bags we've washed for re-use from cup hooks using clothes-pins and our bed is built up on a loft which provides a "root cellar" and cool storage space below! Such a small space encourages us to get outside often for walks and find projects that can be done in the shop-space we have in the barn.

We can dream, can't we?

However, as much as we love our little home, lately we have begun to feel urges to move to a new situation. We would like a place with 3-4 bedrooms so we would have room to invite guests to stay; host some interns to learn about the "Sharing Gardens"  - to transplant this model to other towns and cities. Ideally our expenses wouldn't rise too steeply. A fixer-upper farmhouse, or care-taking situation where we could do work-trade for part of our rent could be a real win-win. We'd like a place we could really grow into--developing a garden site on the property, managing a greenhouse; having a shop-space for projects and a big enough living room to host song-circles, other community-building gatherings and classes in rural-arts skills as we've outlined in our Mission Statement.

These times we're living in are calling for people to return to having many basic skills our grandparents took for granted: growing and storing food, repairing things instead of just getting new ones, making and mending clothes and taking care of each other in a spirit of family, "neighborhood" and community. We would like to create a welcoming home/school where people could teach and learn these kinds of skills and develop friendships based on the meaningful exchange of information and service. Do you happen to know of such a place? We'd like to hear from you.

Planting trees.

In an effort to increase our cash-flow and prepare the ground for this next step in the "Sharing Gardens" ministry, Chris and I would like to offer our services to the people in Alpine, Monroe, Junction City and Harrisburg on a sliding scale basis. Both of us bring skills and experience in a variety of trades, from gardening and landscape maintenance, to painting and handyman work. We can also do cleaning, hauling and organizing. Your support in hiring us will go directly towards keeping the "Sharing Gardens", and all they stand for, thriving and blossoming in South Benton County and beyond!

We can be reached by phone or email:

Llyn and Chris - (541) 847-8797
Click here to send an email

The Sharing Gardens is a non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)

An Inspiring Village - Todmorden, England

Todmorden resident, Estelle Brown, displays a basket of town-grown veggies.

Imagine if the "Sharing Gardens" grew beyond the two established plots to include the whole towns of Alpine and Monroe they are nestled in? Imagine walking down Commercial street and grazing on some fresh-picked peas as you pass City Hall, or later in the summer picking a bouquet of flowers from the curb-side plots in front of people's houses you pass to give to a friend you're visiting in the hills near the water tower? If you live in a larger city, imagine whole neighborhoods growing food and flowers in publicly accessible plots in order to build a sense of community, and create greater food-security as well. This could be possible if we adopted a way of life like the group, Incredible Edibles has done in Todmorden, England.

They began modestly enough: just a few small gardens in public spaces around town, using their own tools, seeds and physical effort. Gradually more and more people became involved and things, well, really "blossomed"! The gardens are on public and private land: in people's yards, in front of the police station, at a bus stop... Though in recent times they have begun to receive recognition for their efforts and some monetary awards as well, the project has been primarily an all-volunteer effort.

Here are links to three articles I found about Incredible Edibles in Todmorden, England - a real inspiration!

Britain's "Greenest" Town

Improved Civic Life through Growing Vegetables

Carrots in the Carpark; Radishes in the Roundabouts

Importance of Local Food Self-Reliance

Those who are familiar with the Sharing Gardens know that we are motivated to guide people towards a model of local food-production, seed-saving, and Earth-friendly gardening techniques while increasing people’s sense of responsibility to assist those less fortunate members of our communities. 

In this eight minute video, physicist Vandana Shiva makes the observation that the highest incidence of hunger in the world shows up in rural and agricultural communities. The very people who should be most able to feed themselves have been forced, through commodity-trading and mono-cropping to abandon growing the diverse variety of foods needed for a nourishing diet. We see examples of this even here in the lush and fertile Willamette Valley of Oregon  where most of the local canneries closed down years ago and many farmers are making their livings growing such crops as grass-seed, animal feed and pumpkin seeds to ship to Asia.

Shiva says, “Access to food should be a basic human right.” 

Please take a few minutes to listen to this warm and intelligent woman connect the dots about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), seed-saving, the rights and responsibilities of corporations and other important topics related to local food security.  We hope that it will help you to understand a little better ‘why’ we do 'what' we do at the Sharing Gardens.

Winter Projects Galore!

By Chris Burns

It’s been some time since we’ve written, and that might lead some of you to believe that there’s nothing going on in the Sharing Gardens at this time of the year. Some people have commented that “It must be great to have a break from all that garden work.”, or something to that effect. We can assure you all that although we are ‘chomping at the bit’ to start planting next Spring’s garden, we are enjoying a variety of projects that are keeping us happily busy through these colder and shorter winter days. We really DO enjoy what we do! We love to get out and rake leaves to use for soil-building, for example. It’s an activity that keeps us from turning flabby and depressed, We call it “Rakey Therapy.”

Thanks to some additional contributions of leaves from our local community, we now have almost 3/4‘s of the Monroe garden covered with leaves and have tilled them into the top few inches where they will provide a rich supply of nutrients for soil organisms and create a condition of high fertility for next year’s crops. Leaves need to be worked in during the Fall so that they have enough time to decompose. Otherwise, if they are put into the soil just before planting, it is very likely that they will pull too much nitrogen from the soil and result in withered and yellow looking starts.

Leaves need to be worked in during the Fall so that they have enough time to decompose. Chris, tilling in donated leaves, in between cover-crops.

Another project that we’ve taken on is the building of a 12 x 40 greenhouse in the Monroe Sharing Garden. (Please see our wishlist below.) We have two design ideas for its construction. Our first option would be to use two of those portable, tarp-covered parking structures like the ones that people buy at Costco. We often see them on people’s property, frames only, since the tarp coverings seem to deteriorate in a few years (see picture). We came up with another idea to build a greenhouse using bamboo, of all things, and it just so happens that Betty Briggs of the Harrisburg Gleaners contacted a friend of hers, John Sundquist who has a farm with bamboo “jungles” that are in serious need of management and selective thinning. Llyn and I have become great friends with John and have been given permission to harvest as much as we need.

Carport-cover used as greenhouse frame.

Aside from the Plan ‘B’ to build a greenhouse with some of the larger material, it can be used in a variety of ways in the garden such as bean and pea trellises, A-frames and trellises for tomatoes, garden stakes, teepees for climbing beans, garden gates, shade houses, you name it. Since the first seeds are ready to start in mid-February, (onions and peas) that doesn’t give us much time to ‘get ‘er done’ as they say. Having a greenhouse in the garden will afford us the opportunity to offer classes and workshops that I’m sure many people will enjoy while learning a lot of valuable methods that can be applied in their own home gardens. And of course, we plan to have extra starts to give out, as well as enough to offer ‘by donation’ to those who can afford to contribute financially as a way to help the project.

Bamboo has many versatile uses

And just a reminder, anyone can make tax-deductible donations to the Sharing Gardens. We can always use operating capital, so if you are in need of a “write-off’ and want to help support a great cause that helps local folks in need, please go to our website, and click on the ‘Donate” button in the upper right-hand corner; or send contributions through regular mail to the address given, and we will be sure to mail you a receipt, with our deepest appreciation. Any other donations of materials, tools and so on, are also eligible for tax receipts.

Having fun and learning in the greenhouse. Germaine and Larry Hammon with Llyn Peabody

However you choose to celebrate the ‘Holy-days’ Llyn and I want to wish you all the very best of times spent with friends and family, and thank all of you who have helped us to help others. Keep up the good work and together we can alleviate food insecurity and restore a sense of caring and sharing amongst those who we call ‘Neighbors and Friends.’ Be well!!!

Wish List:

Other Greenhouse Materials we need: 

• Aluminum-framed, slider windows with screens. 4' x 4' is optimal but anything that size or smaller could work. 
• Pressure-treated lumber: (4 x 4's), (2 x 4's), (2 x 6's), (4 x 6's) - all sizes. We can salvage materials that have nails in them.
• Plywood: full or partial pieces 
• Food-grade, 50-gallon plastic barrels (preferable) or metal drums. We paint them a dark color (if they aren't already), fill them with water and use them to support potting tables. They provide thermal-mass by warming up on sunny days and releasing their heat through the night. Very helpful in the spring (for germinating seedlings) and the fall, for extending the growing season.  

Other Garden Needs:

• Raked leaves for garden mulch. Please bring them to either garden. LOCATIONS Let us know if you need any leaf bags. We re-use them if they're not too torn.  It helps if you don't tie them too tight (the ones you're dropping off). Please no trash, dog-doo or walnut leaves (they're toxic to plant growth.) 

• Spoiled Hay or Straw- We use literally tons of hay to mulch and feed the gardens. If you're cleaning out your barn and need some place for the old stuff to go, we'd welcome it! We can even give you a tax-write-off for your donation.

• Mechanic who's good with small-engine repair: Our roto-tillers and lawn mowers get quite a work-out! The gardens would really benefit from someone who likes to tinker and tune up small engines to keep them running well. We'll keep you supplied with lots of fresh, organic produce!

• Garden cart or two-wheeled wheel barrow
• Leaf rakes and other garden tools
• Trash cans 
• Plastic tubs, 5-gallon buckets, kitty-litter tubs etc. (please no broken ones)
• T-posts (slightly bent, OK). All lengths helpful.
• Cedar fence boards - we use them to build bird houses and compost bins (among other things).
• Mud boots: some of our volunteers are low-income and can't afford mud boots. We will keep them on-hand for use in the garden. All sizes welcome. 
• Straw hats: We keep a supply of them at the gardens for volunteers to use.
• Accurate grocer's scale (to weigh the harvest at the Alpine Garden) 
• Clean plastic/paper sacks 
• Canning jars - all sizes, brought to either site
• Seeds - heirloom varieties, not hybrid (so we can save seeds)

All Donations are Tax-deductible - ask us for a receipt.

       To contact us, please call or email:
       (541) 847-8797 (call from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm)
       ShareInJoy@gmail.com

Cash donations - make checks out to the "Sharing Gardens"  and mail to 
       Sharing Gardens
        PO Box 11
        Monroe, OR 97456

Or use your credit card to make a donation through PayPal (click the button below).

Congratulations! Sharing Garden Wins Awards!

Renee Forrer and Chris Burns. Renee showed up every Monday to harvest for the South Benton Nutrition Program, a twice-weekly lunch for local Seniors. Thanks to her nomination, we received this year's Distinguished Service Award from the Tri-Counties Chamber of Commerce. What an honor!

This year, the Sharing Garden has received two "Distinguished Service Awards". One from the Tri-Counties Chamber of Commerce and the second from Benton County's Extension Service (the agency that oversees the 4-H program). What follows is the acceptance speech we read at the Chamber of Commerce Banquet.

Distinguished Service Award Acceptance Speech

"Anyone who has been following the news over the past 6 months knows that food security has become a global issue. Food-crops such as wheat, corn and rice have failed due to both droughts and flooding. Last week it was reported that more Americans are on Food Stamps than ever before and right here in our own communities we've seen the recent crises of two local Food Banks. God's Store-House in Harrisburg recently had to temporarily close their doors and Junction City's Local Aid also was facing the empty-shelf syndrome. Happily, both communities were able to rally and get the shelves re-stocked with donations.

We think it says a lot about the Tri-Counties area that you have seen enough value in the Sharing Gardens to honor us with this Distinguished Service Award. The 4-H group of Monroe, and the Benton County Extension Service have also presented us with a Distinguished Service Award this year so, we must be doing something right! Though Chris and I are standing here to receive the Award, the Sharing Gardens would not be possible without all the contributions made through donors and volunteers. The gardens thrive because they have become a hub for people to contribute and connect; each from the level and ability that feels right to them.

The land and water for the two sites have been provided free-of-charge. The tools, fencing, seeds, manure, spoiled hay, and everything else that we use to grow food, was all donated directly, or purchased with money received through gifts and grants. From mid-Spring through mid-Autumn volunteers have come to the gardens as often as three times a week to share in the joys and challenges of organic gardening. This award truly goes to everyone who has been a part of the gardens' success.

As many of you know, the food is grown collectively. There are no separate plots. This creates ease for watering, pest management and seed-saving. The harvest is shared with the volunteers and those who have contributed in some way and the surplus is distributed through local food banks and charities. We believe that no-one should ever go hungry, regardless of their circumstances, and so no one is ever charged money for the food that is grown.

2011, in spite of the cool, wet start, has been a very successful year. Our overall harvest increased by about 30 percent. The total amount grown was over 4,600 pounds!

In one week alone we harvested 583 pounds of tomatoes! 

And our overall lettuce harvest was close to 900 heads!

If the people being fed from the gardens had been able to afford to buy this organic produce at the market it would have cost them at least: $14,500 dollars! As Chris and I lived off our savings this year, and did not draw a stipend, the season's budget was only about $2,000 dollars. (A pretty good return on the investment!) (For a full report on amount of produce grown or our operating expenses, send us an email.)

In the interests of local food-security, part of our mission has been to grow-out and save seed from heirloom varieties of plants that thrive in our region. This has been a great year for seed-saving. Our seed-bank now contains over three, five-gallon buckets of vigorous, pure, Heirloom seeds especially adapted to local growing conditions.

So, what's next? We have a 10-point Mission Statement aimed towards local food self-reliance To read it, click here. Much of it is already in motion. In coming seasons we would like to:

Build a greenhouse – to extend our growing season and have the capacity to provide “starts” to other Sharing-type gardens in the region.

Create small local canneries – where people can learn and practice the art of food preservation.

Expand the seed-saving program to create a network of local gardeners and farmers.

Mentor other groups to start Sharing Gardens in Junction City, Harrisburg and the surrounding areas or beyond.

Ultimately we'd like to start a “rural-arts” school – a place where people could come to share their knowledge and experience of living close to the land through offering hands-on workshops, and where people could learn and transplant this knowledge back into the community.

The Sharing Gardens is a non-profit charitable program and we can issue tax-receipts for any donations. We can always put funds and materials to good use and we'd also love to find a land-base for the school and gardens. Please be in touch if you'd like to partner with us in this meaningful, pioneering adventure.

We'd like to close this presentation with a short story: 

Once upon a time, there was a group of people who found themselves in Hell. Now at first it didn't seem like Hell. They sat together around a large table that was covered with a sumptuous feast. Every favorite kind of food they could think of was there. Gorgeous salads and cheeses, soups, nuts, casseroles and pies. All the bounty of the Earth. The smells were intoxicating; the colors – a true work of art. What made this Hell was that the only utensils to eat the food were each three-feet long. No matter how long they stretched their arms and craned back their necks, they could get none of the food into their mouths and feed. They remained starving in the midst of a feast.

There was another group who found themselves in Heaven. Everything was the same: the beautifully laid banquet, the exquisite choices, the sights and aromas. Here too, the only utensils for eating were all three-feet long. The only difference was, that instead of trying to feed only themselves, the Heaven-crowd picked up the spoons and forks and began feeding each other. And in this way, they all were able to share in the feast. Thank you."

Christy Warden (left) nominated us for the Benton County's OSU Extension Service/4-H "Distinguished Service Award". She was the recipient of the Chamber of Commerce's "Citizen of the Year Award" for her dedication to our town's 4-H group. We are excited about our deepening collaboration. (Llyn Peabody on the right).

Harvest Totals, Updates and Wishlist

This post covers the harvest totals for 2011- with some great harvest photos (be sure to scroll to the bottom for the gallery),  an update on the Great Monroe Leaf Drive, and a link to our ever-evolving wish-list.

Striped German - an Heirloom tomato - one of our favorites.

Harvest Totals and new distribution partners:
Each week we had three volunteer sessions. On harvest days, people would gather the ripe produce and bring it to be washed, weighed and boxed for distribution. Volunteers would take a break shortly before the Food Bank opened and do their "shopping", taking home all they could use. The rest was wheel-barrowed over to the Food Bank - 50 yards away.

Harvest on display for volunteers to "shop". No one is ever charged money for the food that is grown.

First the totals from 2010 to give some perspective:

Our big producers in 2010 were:

Beans: 225 pounds

Cucumbers: 653 pounds

Tomatoes: 1,285 pounds

Total pounds: 3,533

Market value of total harvest: $9,950

In 2011, we expanded into using the full Monroe/Crowson garden plot (last year we only used about half of it). Even though we didn't plant the back half, Steve Rose had tilled it in the Spring of 2010 and we mulched it quite deeply with hay/straw. The garden was very fertile.

Here are the highlights of the 2011 harvests:

Lettuce: 877 heads

Potatoes: 910 pounds

Winter Squash: 291 pounds

Tomatoes: 2101 pounds

Market value of total harvest: $14,504

Genny with lettuce harvest.

We have made some new partnerships this year in distributing the surplus food. In 2010, we often found ourselves at the end of the Food Bank time, running around and trying to get people to take home more produce. We just didn't want to see any of it go to waste. This year we added a second harvest day in Monroe (the bigger of the two gardens). That mid-week harvest mostly went to the South Benton Nutrition Program - for their bi-weekly lunch for Seniors. When there was enough, we sent along vegetables for the Seniors themselves to take home.

We've made a great connection with Betty Briggs who, with her husband, Pat, oversees the Harrisburg Gleaners. The Gleaners group has many able-bodied members who glean fruits and vegetables from local farmers and share the harvest with "adopted" families and people in need in the Harrisburg area. Betty's group has many people who still "can" and store food so they were able to distribute our surplus to those who would make good use of it. Towards the end of the season, Betty began to come help in the gardens as well. We anticipate deepening the connection between our two groups next Spring - either they will come volunteer more in the Monroe garden and/or we'll help them get a Sharing Garden started closer to where they live. (If anyone has a lead on some land we could use to start a Harrisburg garden, let us know).

Peppers from 2010

Linn/Benton Food Share has also helped us with our surplus. They deliver food to the Monroe Food Bank every other week. Often we just boxed up what wasn't taken by Food Bank customers and they would transport it to a soup-kitchen/food bank in Corvallis to be distributed.

Chris and I also had fun playing "Santa" some weeks and drove around Monroe to friends and local businesses passing out beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and whatever else was ripe, off the tailgate of our trusty 1968 GMC pick-up truck!

The Great Monroe Leaf Drive

Well, it was supposed to happen on November the 5th but the weather was lousy and frankly, there aren't that many leaves that have fallen yet. We've postponed it till further notice but we still welcome any leaves brought to either garden.  LOCATIONS

Please no trash, dog-doo or walnut leaves (they're toxic to plant growth.)

Our Ever-Evolving Wish-list: Mostly it's the same old stuff: garden supplies and building materials that need a new home/second life. There are a few new specifics though we'd appreciate you keeping an eye out for...

We're going to build another greenhouse! We'd like to make it from two steel-tube carports attached end-to-end. If you know of a used one (or two) that need a new purpose, please let us know. Here's a picture of what we're looking for (or something similar). We'll need two that are the same. We don't need the tarp covering.

We need two carport canopies to build a greenhouse with.

Please bring us your leaves for garden mulch. Bring them to either garden.
Fruit and nuts: If you have windfall fruit or nuts that you'd like to donate, please bring them to the food bank so they can be shared with those in need. If you are physically unable to harvest them yourselves contact us and we will do our best to arrange for volunteers to assist. Link to Food Bank Hours

• Apples
• Pears
• Filberts
• Walnuts

We need a mechanic who's good with small-engine repair: Our roto-tillers and lawn mowers get quite a work-out! The gardens would really benefit from someone who likes to tinker and tune up small engines to keep them running well. We'll keep you supplied with lots of fresh, organic produce! For the full Wish-List - GO TO

It is always such a delight to see Nature's abundance and beauty as we harvest the gardens. Here is a gallery showing some of this year's highlights. Enjoy!

Lettuce, Beans and Apples:

Red Iceberg Lettuce

Never eat anything bigger than your head!

A beautiful mix of greens and reds.

Scarlet Runner Beans

"Winter Bananas" - a great storage apple

Gleaned apples.
It's great to see these apples going to feed people and not just rot on the ground.

Sunflowers: Beauty, food for us and the birds!

Saving seeds to grow sprouts (winter greens) and next year's crop.

We saved gallons of seed this year.

Squash, Cukes and Potatoes:

Pickling cucumbers in the hay.

Squash harvest.

Delicata Squash - sweet, golden meat and tender skin.

Buttercup Squash - hearty, orange/golden meat.

This potato weighed three pounds!

Tomato Gallery:  

Another "Striped German" - low acid. All yumm!

These are called "Long Toms" - a delicious paste tomato

A whole tray of "Long Toms" - the river that runs close by our garden is called the "Long Tom" too!

"Hillbilly Potato Leaf"Tomatoes

A succulent "Brandywine" tomato

Close-up of a "Striped German"

If you are receiving this email as a "forward" and would like to see our full Sharing Gardens website/blog, GO TO