LINCOLN -- Through the month of October, volunteers with Lincoln Community Garden have continued to pick okra, tomatoes, yellow squash and peppers.
"We've had a good crop this year," said Jim Sposato, who heads up the garden with the assistance of volunteers who include master gardeners, local citizens and students from Lincoln schools.
The last day to harvest everything will be Oct. 30. A community group with St. Thomas Catholic Church in Fayetteville will help out that day.
"We'll pick everything left and then clean up the garden," Sposato said.
The garden, which is in its seventh year, produced vegetables this year that also included cucumbers, potatoes and onions.
So far this year, volunteers have harvested 2,356 tomatoes, 16 yellow squash, 15 cucumbers, 1,556 peppers, 4,782 okra, 21 pounds of potatoes and 408 onions.
Totals for the past seven years include more than 25,000 tomatoes, more than 22,000 peppers, 2,089 yellow squash and 635 gallons of potatoes.
The garden provides its fresh produce to G.R.A.C.E. Place in Lincoln, a ministry started in 1988 and supported by 15 area churches. The ministry focuses on sharing about God and meeting needs of those in the area. Sposato said the garden helped 72 families and more than 200 individuals through the Lincoln ministry this year.
Garden volunteers continue to battle with deer that like to eat the plants. Last year, Sposato installed an electric fence but that still didn't keep out deer.
This year, the garden is surrounded by an eight-foot high fence but deer got into the garden anyway.
"We think they're getting in underneath the fence," he said. "We had purple hull peas ready to be picked and they got in and ate all the tops."
Next year, he said they may try both ways to keep out deer, the high fence and an electric fence.
Sposato said he will continue to take care of the garden.
"When I was in college, I collected pop bottles, at 2 cents a bottle, to have food for a Sunday meal," he said. "I'm just trying to pay back and help others."
He added, "I've always been a gardener and I like to help others."
