By Nina Coscia
Originally published in the Grassroots Gardens WNY 2024 Annual Report
The community garden at Lincoln Memorial United Church is one of the most ambitious in Grassroots Garden’s network. With a staggering 23 raised beds, the garden has 709 square feet of space for fruits and veggies. All 23 beds and a perennial space are carefully squished in a narrow strip of land, where the garden’s dense plants give it a feeling of life and abundance.
While caring for such a space is no easy task, Diane Cadle has tended to the garden with great results for around 20 years. Education about gardening and fresh food is central to Diane. Growing up, she learned gardening from her mother. When she had her own son, she loved picking strawberries to make his favorite preserves. Later, Diane’s passion drove her to start a children’s garden at Lincoln Memorial United Church. The garden eventually went dormant after a few years due to too much tree shade and stubbornly hard ground.
A few years later, a fellow congregation member suggested joining Grassroots Gardens, leading to the revitalization of the space and the installation of many raised beds that yield large harvests each year. The children quickly took to the garden again. Diane said, “They just love to watch things grow; and when they start young, they end up having a love for it for life.” They enjoy picking out plants, growing from seeds, and eating fresh food during their Sunday lessons.
“They just love to watch things grow; and when they start young, they end up having a love for it for life.”
This year, the kids grew so many pumpkins, melons, and mini tomatoes that they had to expand to another garden bed! Members of the congregation, neighbors, and a Quaker group care for the other beds, following Diane’s goal of “involving as many people as we can involve.” The huge yield is generously shared, taken home by children and adults alike. During the pandemic, Diane and other leaders at the church organized a regular distribution of fresh produce from the garden to the church’s seniors. Harvests have also been shared with food pantries such as the First Fruits Food Pantry and utilized in cooking classes.
Diane has seen firsthand what sharing and education in the garden can foster. A favorite moment of hers is when she met a mother and her son in the garden this summer. They were passing by for a music lesson at the church when they spotted Diane and asked her questions about the garden. They ended up being sent home with a large amount of green beans and cooking tips from Diane, who was surprised when the young mother said that she had never prepared fresh green beans before. When the pair returned for their next music lesson a few weeks later, raving about the green beans, Diane, of course, took the opportunity to shove okra and Swiss chard in their hands.
“It’s important to share these things, to teach the next generation,” she said, “we want people to cook and have food they’ve never been able to have before, and to have their own gardens at home.”
More cooking classes and chances for kids to watch the seedlings grow are planned for next season. She and a friend recently filled half of a bed with strawberry plants – a favorite of the children – so she can again share her son’s favorite sweet strawberry preserves.
In 2024, Lincoln Memorial United Church Community Garden received a full rebuild thanks to the Tito’s Handmade Vodka Block to Block program. Through an investment of funds and the hard work of Tito’s volunteers, more than 20 raised beds were constructed and filled with fresh soil to ensure the garden community had the resources they needed for a successful season.
