Soil of God, You and I

It’s harvest time in Toronto after a long and beautiful growing season. At Eglinton St. George’s United Church, we’re reminded of all the growth that has taken place in our community garden with each tomato that we pick and each leaf of lettuce that we pluck.

A small and committed group of gardeners, led by Rev. Sarah Chapman, and aided by Morgan Bell, our youth minister in training, we envisioned a community garden on our church grounds where we could reap the bounty of creation while drawing closer to one another as a community. Through the determined work of many volunteers and the generous donations of many – especially TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and Faith & the Common Good – the ESG Community Garden sprung into life.

Three summer students – Courtney, Talia, and Hayden hired as part of Jobs Canada – worked all summer to tend the plants and keep the garden growing, all while growing in themselves as individuals and growing in their own faith. They learned about urban horticulture and the attention it takes to make a garden bloom and bustle with life. The main takeaway is the time it takes to prepare a robust garden and the time it takes to maintain the garden; watering, weeding and trimming, if necessary. 

We discovered that with each conversation we had about gardening and each connection with strangers off the street, God’s Holy Spirit was using our work to create the fertile soil for human connection to flourish. Even now, as the growing season slowly starts to come to its end, the buzz of life that the garden brings to ESG still rings through its grounds.

We’re grateful to all who worked to make this dream a reality, and especially to Scott’s for their generous donation of their “Nature’s Own” organic soil. We also thank Arlene Duncan and Reid Robson for their passion and dedication to the community garden, without which would still be a lawn! We know that our work has been used for the glory of God and for the flourishing of the God’s realm. Thanks be to God.

"We would like to thank TD FEF for funding this exciting gardening project."