August here at St.Vincent Mission area has been hot and very wet. Several of our gardeners have been dealing with flooding issues in there areas. I was proud to see that our little garden family has pulled together to help each other out. At the beginning of the month we did a class on fall crops to plant and how to clean up the summer gardens. Many have been getting most of their harvest out this month and doing freezing, canning, farmers market, and sharing with those who lost their own gardens.

While out on my garden visits I spoke with two individuals. Erica and Girlie. Erica has lived and been gardening for six years now. she talked about how she enjoys growing organic foods. Her favorite thing this year was learning how to can and store here home grown foods. The garden she works in feeds three families for the whole year. She said, with the prices of store food it is been more beneficial to here family members to grow what they will eat and able to save on grocery money.

Girlie has been in this area for 62 years. she started out as a little girl working in the garden with her grandparents/parents. I asked what it was that interested her in gardening? she says, she likes being outside and working in the dirt. Each time she came to her garden she was able to see a change with how things were growing. Everything she grows is canned. I thought it was so nice sitting on her porch swing visiting with her, while you could here the birds singing and behind us was a huge berry patch on the hill just next to her porch. I thought it was so convenient just to be able to stand and pick berries from you porch.