Since its founding in 2022, The Giving Gardens (GG) has provided more free, fresh produce to Macomb and McDonough County residents every year. While many residents are aware of the ten public access gardens in Macomb, Colchester and Bushnell, they may not be aware of the large production gardens that the organization uses to provide fresh produce to the WIRC Food Pantry and the Giving Garden Space at 400 E. Carroll St.
'The focus of the Giving Gardens has always been on creating the neighborhood public access gardens that local residents enjoy visiting so much,' said Giving Gardens Founder and Executive Director, John Curtis. 'However, we also have substantial gardens, including two solar houses (sun-heated greenhouses) where we grow crops for The Giving Gardens Share Space, the WIRC Food Pantry and to sell at The Macomb Food Co-op.'
Every Tuesday morning starting in April and running through November, volunteers harvest, package and deliver whatever produce is available in the production gardens. On April 28, the harvest included bagged spinach, kale, Swiss Chard, arugula and lettuce mixes as well as bunches of radishes and Japanese turnips. Later in the season, the focus will shift to warm season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, green beans, zucchini and cucumbers. In 2025, more than 5,000 tomatoes, 10,000 peppers and 400 quarts of green beans were harvested in the production gardens and shared with the community.
'Many gardeners might be surprised to learn that there are crops ready to be harvested as early as April, but the solar houses are the key to our ability to harvest early crops to share with the community and keep them going late into the fall,' said Peace Corps Fellow/AmeriCorps member Whitney Fowler.
'The houses provide protection from strong winds and hard rains and get much warmer when there is sunlight. Many of our crops can be produced three or four weeks earlier in the houses and a few crops, like spinach, can grow overwinter and provide greens as early as the beginning of March.'
A storm in February tore the roof off of one of the solar houses jeopardizing spring production, Curtis added. The Giving Gardens supporters came to the rescue, donating the money needed to replace the plastic and components on both solar houses.
'Our supporters really came through with both the donations and the labor that we needed to repair both of our solar houses,' he shared. 'The timing was especially critical because those solar houses also serve as a nursery for the many thousands of seedlings that we plant in our 12 public access gardens.'
The Giving Gardens is a non-profit organization based in McDonough County. For more information, check out their website at givinggardensforall.com or their YouTube Channel, Facebook or Instagram pages at givinggardensforall.
