Early in the season there were students from the Master Gardener course, taught in Northern Kentucky and at the Civic Garden Center who came to fulfill some of their class requirements and have remained faithful ever since. The Saturday morning garden volunteer events have been well attended, with a man celebrating a birthday by planting potatoes with his family, to the parents of Community Supported Agriculture members who run their own CSA, to former garden interns. Volunteers did most of the big spring planting projects, planting potatoes and sweet potatoes and transplanting tomatoes, and, who, year after year, help plant, mulch, harvest and clean our garlic crop. Workshop participants studying Deep Ecology planted beets for us, and one woman had been back to help out since then. A teacher at Cincinnati State brings her class out for compost tours and offers them extra credit for volunteering here.
Different people come at different times of the day and week as well.
A mother with a new baby in the CSA comes when the little one is awake and cheerful to spend an hour or two helping out. Another CSA member who freelances comes most weeks to give a hand one morning. Other people have come after work to join us from 7 to 9 pm. Volunteers are especially appreciated in the gardens during those in-between seasons, early spring and late fall, when there is so much work still to do, but fewer hands to help. There are great greenhouse projects then, and heavier soil preparation work for those who enjoy using a shovel in the crisp air.