Sowing and Growing – Bristol Community Garden

Bristol Community Garden, with help of Ropp and and an invested community of supporters and volunteers, expands its mission to be a resource for good

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2024 expansion of the Bristol Community Garden is one of the community projects identified by the Vibrant Communities Action Agenda 2.0 report. Action Agenda 2.0, unveiled in 2024, identifies and advances quality-of-place projects to improve, inspire, beautify, and unite the greater Elkhart County community.

“We’ve had so much support,” says Mikel Ropp, Coordinator of the Bristol Community Garden. “The Elkhart County non-profit Seed to Feed has been a primary supporting organization by supplying seeds, plants, irrigation, and other equipment, not to mention access to their knowledge and vast network of local growers. They do really great work to support gardens like ours. Last year Seed to Feed supported over 30 gardens, many of which are much larger than ours.

The Town of Bristol and Bristol Parks have also been great partners in providing land, water, soil, and mulch for the community garden, and Bristol’s Scout Troop #117 assembled and filled our raised beds.

The main objective of the Bristol Community Garden is to develop community experiences and generate produce for the food pantry at The HUB (Hearts United for Bristol), and we aim to overproduce. When we have a surplus, people from the community can come to pick for themselves and their families. We always encourage people—if they’re going to pick for themselves—to consider volunteering some time in exchange for produce. Still, we also understand that not everyone has the capacity for that.

My wife Brienne and I, and two other volunteers, hosted the community garden for its first season in 2021. It was a modest space, but we were able to grow and donate 150 pounds of produce for The HUB’s food pantry. Year two, in 2022, was our first year at the current location and the garden donated between 250 and 300 pounds. Last year we produced approximately 700 pounds—500 for The Hub and 200 pounds harvested by members of the community and our volunteers.

Action Agenda 2.0 spurs new growth

The 2024 expansion increases the garden’s five rows by 20 feet each. It doesn’t sound like all that much, but an extra 100 feet of space will make a big difference. We’re thankful to the Town of Bristol and glad that the Vibrant Communities Action Agenda 2.0 report identified this project as a worthy one. This year we will likely do more than 700 pounds, with the added space and by using techniques like succession planting. We could very well produce more than 1,000 pounds of food to donate this year.

The extra space and the loftier goals require more time for planting and processing. There will be more work, but we’re blessed to have a great core group of volunteers. Some of our volunteers are master gardeners, some have worked in greenhouses, and some don’t have much gardening or growing experience. They all share things in common, though. They’re all tenacious, committed, and not afraid of a little hard work.

We’re always looking for more volunteer help, so if you’re in Elkhart County and love being outside and working for a good cause, I would encourage you to contact us. We’d be glad to have more help.

Growing together

Brienne and I have been married for 17 years, and—early on in our relationship—gardening was something we wanted to try together. We were pretty green when we started. We lost a lot of plants those first few years, but we persisted and learned more with each passing season. It’s become something of a shared passion, and we’ve become capable growers. It’s not magic. Gardening just requires time, attention, patience, and the ability to learn by asking questions, observing, and doing.

Before I became the garden’s coordinator, I volunteered at the food pantry. One day, Brienne and I were at the pantry as Gabby Parrish—the Director of Seed to Feed—was talking to (The HUB Executive Director) Chris Garner about starting a community garden as a resource for the food pantry. Brienne and I offered to host the community garden for that first year, and I’m grateful things have come so far since then.

The joy of doing

Volunteering my time and effort toward the community garden is fulfilling on many levels. Working to help achieve greater food security for the Bristol community is a big part of what drives me. Also, when I was younger, I had a health issue that forced me to drastically change the way I ate. I’ve become a healthier eater because of that, and I feel fantastic. I want others to experience how good it feels to eat more fresh produce.

On top of that, all my grandparents were rural farmers. It’s a part of who I am, and it’s in my genes—but before Brienne and I started gardening, I’d never grown anything more than a single pumpkin. My involvement with the community garden gives me a great feeling of connection to my family and heritage. And my wife has been a big inspiration to me. We both spend a lot of time at the community garden, but it’s usually Brienne who is not quite ready to go at the end of a gardening session.

Back to basics

Beans, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are staple crops in the community garden, and we also grow lettuce, green onions, and eggplants. We mainly stick to the basics.

We’ve introduced things like Swiss chard and red noodle beans and also discovered the importance of educating people about a wide range of produce. Folks thought the Swiss chard was rhubarb, and the red noodle beans were exotic to them. Another part of this process that I truly enjoy is helping people learn about what we grow. It’s a great feeling to help people in our community eat better and also help them learn, grow, and expand their horizons.

The community garden has become a resource for The HUB’s food pantry, and we’re proud of that. I also think the garden is important to the community members and volunteers who make it possible. I’ve had volunteers describe to me how working in the community garden is like meditation for them. Often, I’ll come to the garden and notice that some anonymous volunteer has been there—off hours, just out there on their own—picking weeds and beautifying the space.

It’s hard to put into words how good that feels. Knowing that others in the community share this enthusiasm for our community garden and put forth such pure effort really inspires me. It seems that for the many of us involved, the doing is the reward.”