What a perfect Saturday morning at the Eastpointe Community Garden! With the weather finally cooling off and everything in full bloom, our garden looked absolutely breathtaking. Here’s what went down during our weekly garden party.

Early Birds Get the Harvest

Bill and Jen were already hard at work when Shay and I rolled in before 10 AM, diving straight into harvest mode. Bill shared that they’d arrived around 9:00 AM and immediately got strategic about the day ahead. After mapping out beds 1-12, Jen jumped into harvesting beds 13-16 while Bill tackled the watering duties for Giving Garden beds 13-24.

Meanwhile, Bill was busy tending to his zucchini empire in the rental beds and working on the sponsor beds on the right side of the garden. After Coley cleaned up and harvested one of the beds, Bill filled giving garden bed 1 with fresh compost – keeping the cycle of growth going strong!

Special Visitors and New Connections

Beth from Whole Foods Stops By

One of the day’s highlights was meeting Beth, our community champion from Whole Foods! We’d been connecting through email and LinkedIn for a while, and she finally had the chance to visit the garden. I caught her walking up from the parking lot and had the pleasure of giving her the full tour.

We spent quality time near the U-Pick garden, where I explained how our rental bed program works alongside the giving garden concept. Beth was absolutely blown away by what she saw and called the garden “breathtaking.” She’s excited to start visiting regularly once her schedule allows. Having Whole Foods interested in us just for being us feels pretty awesome!

Warren Film Crew Captures the Magic

Lewis from the City of Warren stopped by to capture B-roll footage for a news segment they’re filming at the South Warren Community Garden tomorrow. Bill intercepted him at the front parking lot to explain how our U-Pick garden operates, then I took over for the rest of the tour.

Initially, I don’t think Lewis fully understood why I’d suggested getting footage from the Eastpointe garden. But once he was here walking around, he made comments about how amazing and cool everything looked. The garden really is at its peak right now with everything in full bloom!

Infrastructure Improvements

Rebuilding the Check-In Board

Kat and I tackled a project that’s been on my mind for weeks. A couple weeks back, I’d built a check-in board by screwing pallet posts together and mounting a dry erase board on top. We use it for our daily volunteer checklist and for people to check in so we can track attendance.

The problem? We have to haul this thing in and out of the shed every week to protect it from weather damage, and all that moving around was slowly breaking it down. Today, Kat and I completely disassembled it, reinforced the frame, and added crossboards for stability. Most importantly, we redesigned it so the dry erase board slides in and out of the frame easily and can lay flat when we’re writing out the day’s tasks.

Jeff’s Creative Engineering

Jeff had quite the productive afternoon! He filmed a one-take video of me working on the board rebuild (getting his revenge for all the times I sneak up on people with my camera). Then he got his engineering brain working, building a fry basket net to help manage hyacinth in the pond.

Later, he put those, as he says “big stompy legs” to good work digging holes for Lisa’s native plant installations. Jeff also created an awesome flower press that brought tears of joy to Kat’s friend!

Garden Maintenance and Expansion

Native Plant Paradise

Lisa was busy expanding our native plant collection, working with Jeff to plant blue flag irises from Nick and several American hazelnut shrubs. She shared a beautiful photo of the newly planted area – it’s amazing to see our biodiversity sanctuary growing!

Harvest and Hospitality

Shay pitched in with harvest duties, helping Coley trim and weed one of her beds and assisting Jen with the cucamelon harvest. She also spent time getting to know Karen, who’s running for city council and stopped by to introduce herself. Sounds like Karen plans to use the garden space for writing and decompressing throughout the week – exactly what we love to hear!

Kat’s Kitchen Magic

Kat outdid herself today! Beyond her sponsor bed maintenance, she made lunch for everyone. She stopped at the store and grabbed turkey, ham, tortillas, cheese, and all the fixings for sandwiches and wraps. Having a proper sit-down meal together in the garden always makes these Saturdays feel extra special.

She also worked on flyers and somehow managed to make friends cry happy tears with Jeff’s awesome flower press creation. Kat’s got quite the touch for bringing joy to the garden!

Community Connections

Returning Friends

A family that visited us sometime last year returned today with a friend in tow. They remembered being fed well during their last visit (of course!), and today we sent them home with fresh produce. They’re already excited about our upcoming art show.

Little Free Library Goes Official

Germaine made it official – we’re now registered with the Little Free Library organization! Our Book Nook has been such a hit with visitors, and now we’re part of the global network of community book sharing. It’s another way our garden connects people through shared resources.

Parking Lot Transformation

Craig tackled the weeds that had been taking over our parking lot, and the difference is incredible! The entrance to our garden looks so much more welcoming now. Sometimes it’s these behind-the-scenes improvements that make the biggest impact on first impressions.

The ADHD Garden Experience

I’ll be honest – after a really long week, I mostly just “did the ADHD thing” today. I floated around, took photos, caught up with friends, and soaked up the community energy without sticking to my usual weekly agenda. Sometimes the best garden days are the ones where you just exist in the space and appreciate what everyone else is building together.

Important Reminder: Produce Distribution Update

Quick heads-up for our community: While the Eastpointe parking lot is under construction, we’re taking all of our Saturday harvest to the South Warren Community Garden for distribution on Sundays from 10 AM to 2 PM.

We’ve temporarily paused our Saturday produce stand here at Eastpointe because we want to keep everyone safe. Nobody should risk getting hurt trying to get free tomatoes while construction equipment is around! Head over to Warren on Sundays if you want to snag some fresh garden goodies.

What’s Next

Tomorrow, the South Warren Community Garden gets their moment in the spotlight with that news segment filming. It’s going to be awesome seeing both of our gardens get recognition for the community work we’re doing.

With our newly official Little Free Library status and a much cleaner parking lot thanks to Craig, we’re ready for our art show coming up in just a couple of weeks!

Want to join our garden family? We meet every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Eastpointe Community Garden (16425 Nine Mile Road). No experience needed – the soil doesn’t judge, and neither do we! Just show up and we’ll find you something fun to do.