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Garden helps Catoosa County Jail inmates grow responsibility, resourcefulness

By Lynda Edwards August 31, 2016 7 min read

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Cultivating commitment: Garden helps Catoosa County Jail inmates grow responsibility, resourcefulness

Vegetables harvested from the garden at Catoosa County Jail fill a wheelbarrow.

Jason Hughes, from left, Tim Kelly and Leander Johnson discuss the work they put into their garden at the Catoosa County Jail.

Jason Hughes, Leander Johnson and Tim Kelly, from left, discuss their garden at the Catoosa County Jail.

Leander Johnson, Jason Hughes and Tim Kelly, from left, discuss the work they put into it at the Catoosa County Jail.

Tim Kelly examines strawberries in a raised bed at the Catoosa County Jail.

Cherry tomatoes are among the many vegetables growing in the garden at Catoosa County Jail.

The kitchen crew at Catoosa County Jail made 22 gallons of soup for the inmates, using vegetables grown in the jail's garden.

Leander Johnson, Jason Hughes and Tim Kelly, from left, discuss their garden and the work they put into it at the Catoosa County Jail.

To donate

If you would like to donate to the Catoosa County Jail garden, call 706-965-6862 ext. 1117. Vegetables, berries, melons, herbs, flowers that attract pollinators, seed, fertilizer and mulch are welcome.

The tale of the juicy ruby red tomatoes is a saga.

Ace Hardware was going to toss the dying plants into a dumpster when Catoosa County Jail Sgt. Rhonda Wilson rescued them and gave them to three inmates, who resurrected them back to life.

And the tomatoes are just one crop being cultivated. At first glance, the lush garden seems like a hallucination, but it is the result of hard work, devotion and resourceful intelligence from the three gardener/inmates – Leander Johnson, Jason Hughes, Tim Kelly, who praise Wilson as their mentor. They are often planting, watering and reaping before 8 a.m. and continue through the scalding heat until guards insist they come in from the noon sun.

In the 40-by-100-foot garden, stalks of silver corn tower over emerald okra and zucchini vines scattered with pale yellow blossoms. Pink flowers bloom on vines alongside strawberries while Sweet Babies watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers and tomatoes ripen nearby. The potatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and jalapeno and Serrano peppers have been harvested are placed in the wheelbarrow on their way to the jail’s kitchen.