Tricia Woolbright, middle, and Anne Jeter collect compost from the worm bin in the Gathering Garden in Hixson.
Contributed photoThe Gathering Garden in Hixson will open for its third season May 7 to provide vegetables and fruit for the community.
"So far we have planted potatoes, spinach, broccoli, kohlrabi, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, herbs, lettuce, pumpkin, squash, sunflowers and corn," said Gathering Garden co-manager Jami Brown. "We have a 12-by-16 garden, two raised boxes, two plots and two fields all for the community."
Brown said people can volunteer to tend the garden in exchange for vegetables and fruit grown in the gardens. She said people can also rent their own bed to grow crops. She said 20 different plots are being rented at the church, but more plots can be established as needed.
Brown said a tornado several weeks ago blew the Gathering Church steeple into the garden.
She said the steeple in the garden serves as a reminder of God turning something bad like a tornado into something good. She said now people can sit around the steeple and pray in the garden.
"I started working in the Gathering Garden last April," said Brown. "I saw that the garden was overgrown. They told me that the guy that used to take care of the garden quit and no one knew how to work it."
Brown said she is a self-taught backyard gardener. She recently obtained her master gardener certification. She is studying at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in order to receive a master's degree in environmental science.
"I put in 20 hours a week in the Gathering Garden," said Brown, who works with fellow master gardener Tricia Woolbright. "We get no money, so we constantly beg for plants. The plants so far have all been donated from different farms in the area."
She said every Monday evening and Saturday morning experts are working in the Gathering Garden.
Brown said she and Woolbright raise funds for the Gathering Garden by setting up a lemonade stand at the Main Street Farmer's Market Wednesdays from 4 to 6 p.m.
• The Gathering Church - home to the Gathering Garden - is at 4445 Hixson Pike in Hixson. For more information, call the church at 877-7922.