Throughout the year, volunteers for the Lord’s Garden spend time sowing the land and the fruits of their labor goes to help feed the needy on Whidbey Island.

“We plant food to give away to seniors living in subsidized housing,” said Walt Bankowski, president of Lord’s Garden.

Bankowski, along with his daughter, Marina, and several others, spent Tuesday evening picking lettuce and spinach that was delivered to several senior centers throughout the area.

Lord’s Garden consists of a 12-acre piece of land near Gallery Golf Course. Volunteers of the non-denominational effort spend their off hours tending the crops and tilling the soil.

The Lord’s Garden doesn’t own the land they farm. However, they do have a sweet deal as they only pay a $1-a-year lease on the property.

Bankowski said a core group of seven to 10 people work the garden three times a week. The Lord’s Garden is looking for more volunteers.

Currently, volunteers are picking lettuce and spinach and in the coming weeks will be picking onions and broccoli and then sweet corn.

The Lord’s Garden provides a healthy activity for volunteers and produces an equally healthy crop for the island’s seniors. The volunteers don’t use pesticides in their care for the garden.

At the end of their growing season in October, they clean it up to prepare it for next year.

Bankowski said the group concentrates on delivering to local senior groups although any surplus the garden produces has been given to organizations such as the Help House.

The contributions are appreciated.

“I’ve always been a strong supporter of Lord’s Garden from years back,” said Howard Thomas, Senior Services manager for Oak Harbor. “They have always been an organization that puts their produce where it’s needed.”

Thomas added that, when he was the interim director of Citizens Against Domestic Abuse last year, the folks from the Lord’s Garden provided food for CADA’s clientele and also for the city’s Meals on Wheels program.

Lord’s Garden has been growing crops for needy people since 1987. Although the founders of the garden have left the island, it has been sustained mostly by word of mouth.

You can reach News-Times reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynewstimes.com or 675-6611.