After a rainy summer here in St. Petersburg, our Edible Peace Patch Garden had nearly disappeared beneath a thick layer of Bermuda grass, sedge, and cape weed. You could barely see the raised bed boxes underneath the tangle. The compost piles were covered in sweet potato vine, a volunteer from last spring's final clean up, and our Crape Myrtle had sprouted dozens of new stems from their bases. It looked in need of a serious trim. And it got one. 
Every Autumn Term Eckerd College freshmen spend an afternoon donating their service to the local community. Yesterday, 27 students from the class of 2013 came to the Peace Patch and helped us clean things up. Students pulled grass, cleared beds, spread mulch, and distributed compost. They worked hard throughout the muggy August afternoon and doesn't it look great! 
This fall semester, we have a dozen and a half Eckerd students tending the Peace Patch and working with Lakewood students. They will be taking over the blog in two weeks. We expect to plant beans, zucchinni, corn, squash, cucumber, carrots, radishes, spinach, lettuce, sunflowers, a butterfly garden, and an herb garden. There may be more, but we'll see. 
For now, we are delighted to have a cleaned garden and are grateful for the assistance of Eckerd College service learning and the wonderful class of 2013, many of whom I hope to see in the Peace Patch again some time before they graduate! 
The compost yielded two square yards of rich brown soil. A watermelon volunteered and had grown all summer. One of the gourd plants survived the summer on the side fence and has produced numerous fruit. We have several different kinds of seeds that we saved form last semester that will be planted this season.Check out all the photos on our Flickr site.
