The Bill Crouch Garden is First UMC-Denton’s new community garden. The garden site, located just east of Monroe Gym, features several raised beds, a composting station, mulched pathways, and benches for quiet contemplation. The Garden honors the late Bill Crouch, former senior pastor of our church and a long-time gardener. Our church’s Mission Team sponsors the garden. The Bill Crouch Garden Fund supports the project’s infrastructure, with the gardeners supplying the seeds and the elbow grease.
Find the most recent info on the Garden on Facebook
Over the summer of 2011, nearly a dozen gardeners tended the 19 raised beds in First UMC- Denton’s Bill Crouch Garden, hoping to provide fresh produce to Our Daily Bread and other Denton-area feeding ministries. Our Daily Bread, housed at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, offers a salad and hot lunch every weekday to those in need.
Gardeners represent a diversity of individuals and groups from across the congregation. The church’s children’s ministry is growing tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and a host of herbs in their two 8’ by 8’ plots. Gardeners Chanel Denham and Kay Jennings of the FunStop After School Program and Children’s Day Out hope to use the small-scale veggie farm as a way to teach the children the wonders of growing things.
Several Sunday School classes have adopted garden plots, as well. New Horizons’ garden guru, Ken Dickson, is coordinating a pepper patch in that group’s plot. The youth group, the Class of 2015, under the tutelage of Rachel Biggerstaff, has a good stand of vegetables growing, including squash and cucumbers. The Bungalow Class, with Debbie and Doug MacElroy managing the effort, has added some floral color to the garden with their vibrant array of marigolds accompanying their radishes, tomatoes, and peppers. The College Class rounds out the group with a unique offering of kale, chard, cabbage, and potatoes among its plantings. Allyson and Dave Gardner, along with Lauren Scofield, lead that effort.
Complementing the classes, several individual members are tending plots and adding to the potential harvest. Christie Wood has several plots going and is adding to the variety with her beets, spinach, lettuce, and pole beans. Christie is especially proud of her asparagus. Lee and Debbie Swafford have put in carrots, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes in their large plot. Jerry and Rhonda Clark are starting an herb garden in their areas, while Helga Williamson is teaching her granddaughter the joys of gardening with her crop of tomatoes and peppers.