Event presents Middle Way House rooftop garden

If only gardens could talk.

Signs displayed the types of vegetables sprouting from multiple kiddie swimming pools as Bloomington patrons were led through the rooftop garden at Middle Way House.     

The rooftop garden at Middle Way was presented to those interested in the garden and its sustainability techniques Friday and Saturday.

Garden coordinator Andrea Jobe presented the garden to various people with her team of interns.

“Everyone working on this garden is a volunteer,” Jobe said. “It is a great learning educational system.”

The open house welcomed students, Bloomington residents and anyone interested in gardening and sustainability to oversee the garden’s ecological uses of recycled containers for plants and water systems.

In addition to learning about the garden, the hosts provided a spread taken from the garden, including fresh tomatoes and zucchini bread.  There was also the chance to win a door prize basket of the garden’s vegetables.

“We were expecting about 25 people on Saturday, but for me it was not the quantity that was important,” said Ricca Macklin, co-coordinator of the garden. “The quality of people we had was great. It was a group of people that cared about what we were doing.”

Macklin started work at Middle Way House last year, serving as one of the design interns for the rooftop garden before being promoted to coordinator.

Many others start at Middle Way the same way, volunteering several hours a week interning with the garden.

Providing several types of work, the garden constantly keeps Middle Way’s interns in design, business and vermiculture, the study of worm composting, busy.

Lauren Jobe is a vermiculture intern working with soil, compost and worms.

“We feed all food scraps to the worms that turn it into compost that we bring back to the garden,” Lauren Jobe said. “It is a very sustainable thing to do and helps complete the cycle of the garden.”

Since the garden started about a year ago, it has produced about 115 pounds of food, surpassing the rooftop team’s goal of 75 pounds, Andrea Jobe said.

Macklin said one of her team’s goals for the garden’s produce is to begin selling the food to local restaurants and stores as an established business.
 
“Our goal is to sell to people, make a revenue and begin giving back to the shelter,” Macklin said. “As of right now, the produce is given to the residents of the home.”