On Saturday, May 14, Growing Love Community Garden, located in the Manorhaven Preserve, hosted a Spring Festival that served as a fundraiser for the Garden.  The event was called “All My Relations,” and included both a free admission Family Fest from 2-4 p.m. and a ticketed concert given by roots-rock musician Will Evans from 6-8 p.m.  The event pulled its name from a Lakota prayer of “oneness and harmony,” as per Growing Love’s Instagram page.

Growing Love Community Garden was “founded on the idea that people can work together to feed themselves, support one another, and help the planet at the same time,” according to their website.  The project aims to simultaneously aid the community, the town, and the environment by developing healthy gardening practices and allowing residents to grow their own food.  The Garden was founded five years ago by Erika Stehl, a Port Washington resident and the co-founder of Ripple Creative, and officially opened in 2018.  It includes landscape construction by Dan Murray and landscape design by Eve Peterson.

In order to request a plot, interested community members can fill out a form on the Growing Love Community Garden website and be put on a waiting list, which eventually enters them into a lottery for a plot.  In addition to planting a plot, the Garden provides a number of other services, among them gardening resources, yoga and art classes, and workshops for kids.

“The Garden has been an ongoing learning experience for the whole team.  We have continued to build new areas through the years, including a vertical garden with experimental veggies/herbs/medicinals, the Memorial Garden in a shady spot for contemplation, and the Children’s Garden with sensory elements for playing,” said Stehl.

The “All My Relations” Family Fest featured food from local food trucks and vendors, including AJ Comfort Cakes, Taste Buddyz, Bubbly Bar, Simply Spinelli, The Smokin’ Sandy Pineapple, Livy’s Lemonadestand, and GLCG Bakesale.  Artisans, merchants, and artists were also there, ranging from tarot card readers and soap makers to florists, photographers, and an on-demand poet.  For children who attended the event, there was face painting, bead crafts, and coloring hosted by SoulShine Art Studio.  To tie it all together, live music was performed by Schreiber senior Ana Paul.

“[The event] took a lot of fun time and planning with our committee and volunteers.  It’s a journey which we are always happy to take, learning as we go.  We hope the Garden continues to grow and thrive as a community hub where all feel welcome and part of our larger family.  We are focused on community connection,” said Stehl.