Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program
By M

This week in the BDVP garden I did a lot of watering and harvesting of veggies, fruits, and lettuce. A special private cooking lesson by a chef from Carolina and a nutritionist put all the beautiful produce like garlic scapes in omelets. It was a great bonus for all those who participated in the garden, as well as others here. We learned that there are healthier recipes to try for healthier lifestyles right here in the garden and enjoyed tasty samplings of those dishes.

This week of gardening at the BDVP was a good week for observing finished patches after weeks and weeks of planting, watering, weeding, and composting. The whole garden was blooming and coming together nicely. The efforts of all the girls and their garden supervisors were never more noticeable or enjoyable to us than this week. The lettuce they harvested could have won awards! Garden hats off to all and many thanks to the BDVP for such a wonderful and much needed addition to my healing here.

This work week in the BDVP garden was very good again. I had a chance to enjoy the weather change while having fun with a few interns who were at different stages of learning, so we learned about how to plant, when to harvest, and tried new projects. We assembled bee hives. I was entrusted with the ‘brood’ box. The other girls put together honeycomb trays and assembled and painted the boxes.

We also had the opportunity to cut flowers from the garden and we did enjoy making arrangements for an event. We watered plants and picked peas too! I look forward to big, garden fresh spinach tonight! I also look forward to the medicinal effects of spinach too. Good stuff! Gardening was a good stress reliever for me this week too. The weather combination and the scenery were peaceful, serene, calming, even healing, not mention good company. (From notes written during May 2013)

This post is part of a series written by survivors of domestic violence who are participating in our farm stipend project.