The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Mother Garden
Mothers nourish friendship, family with garden
By Sue G. Collins, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 8, 2008
Renee Young and Treva Krebs are two Saline mothers serious about feeding their children more vegetables.
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They decided to put more green on their dinner tables by pledging to plan, plant, sow, weed and water a vegetable and herb garden together this spring.
While walking their morning route last summer, the mothers watched the Saline Community Garden come to life and this month will plant their own 10-foot-by-10-foot bed along with 35 other gardeners.
"Walking and biking together, we realized we both were concerned with providing our families with nutritious meals, but were challenged to find vegetables that were truly safe from insecticides and other pollutants," said Young, the mother of two teenage daughters.
Krebs, who has three sons, agreed.
"I kept reading stories in the news about scares with imported produce and realized if I grew my own, I'd be sure about the food I was serving my family."
So, the two mothers will grow tomatoes, snow peas, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers and herbs in their community garden bed, visible from Woodland Drive, in the shadow of the historic Weber-Blaess schoolhouse.
The Saline Community Garden opens Saturday with an orientation for gardeners, 14 of whom are new to the cooperative, now in its second harvest after opening with a flourish of land acquisition, volunteerism and donations last May.
Calesta Harrison of Saline enlisted the enthusiasm and green thumbs of friends, neighbors and community activists to bring her vision for the garden to fruition. Last year, beds were built, mulch moved and gardeners lined up to be among the first to plant in beds named for historic figures in Saline's past and important members of Saline today.
Young and Krebs don't know much about the namesake of their bed, John Bortle, but will ask Harrison on Saturday, when all the gardeners gather to meet and discuss the future season for the well-tended plot.
They also will be asking for advice from other gardeners, since neither has planted one before.
"It will be a lot of trial and error this year," Young said. "But we'll be doing it together, which will make it all the more fun."
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