DECATUR, Ill. (AP) - In nine years of vegetable gardening with her boyfriend, Danielle Aughton never knew the best time to plant Brussels sprouts.
The answer (early spring) is one of many things the homeless woman is learning in the new Mercy Gardens job training that began earlier this month at the Good Samaritan Inn.
Since arriving at God’s Shelter of Love in Decatur a month ago, she has been looking for a job and trying to get back on her feet in the aftermath of her boyfriend’s death last fall.
“Living with (a relative) did not work,” said Aughton, 45. “I’ve been a waitress before, but I really like working outside, working with my hands and watching things grow.”
She and her classmates had to work inside this week, but they still got to get their hands dirty planting seeds for warm-weather crops they will transplant outside in mid-May.
The class has gone outside two times so far: once to measure garden beds for covers and again on the first day of spring March 20 to plant spinach and lettuce.
Aughton is one of nine people signed up for Mercy Gardens, taught in collaboration with Decatur’s soup kitchen by Cindy Jackson, garden manager for Decatur Is Growing Gardeners, or DIGG.
Mercy Gardens is the second job training program offered at the Good Samaritan Inn, with Mercy Kitchens culinary arts training getting under way about a year ago.
On Tuesday, while the class planted peppers and cabbage seeds, Jackson explained that giving crops a “head start” on the growing season helps them resist disease and pests without using chemicals.
“We’ll see how true the germination rates on the seed packets are,” Jackson promised. “We’ll keep track of our results and do the math.”
Forty-five-year-old Milton Barbee, a neighborhood resident and another student in the class, was surprised to see how much the broccoli and cauliflower they planted earlier had grown when he added new trays to DIGG’s germination chamber in the next room.
“The chamber in there is jumpin’!” Barbee exclaimed.
Other students in the class include Karla House, Randi Keaton, Patrick Slater and Brenda Vanskike.
In addition to the job skills she’s learning, Aughton took a big step toward self-sufficiency this week by landing a job as a server at a Decatur restaurant.
A graduate of Lincoln Community High School, Aughton said she has also been a bartender, worked in a nursing home and done road construction.
“There’s nothing quite as satisfying as knowing you’re helping feed people,” she said. “My boyfriend and I had big enough gardens, we fed his family and friends. We had so much I was almost ready to get rid of it by the middle of summer.”
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Source: (Decatur) Herald & Review, https://bit.ly/1ak0wTh
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Information from: Herald & Review, https://www.herald-review.com
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