Our gardens expanded this year! We now raise produce for donation and for market.
Donation- Our garden is a simple way to help address the need for locally grown, nutritious, fresh produce for those in need. 2700 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables was donated to Food Gatherers in 2010. We grew beets, carrots, kale, lettuce, melons, and much more. We were fortunate to have businesses donate tools and to have volunteers come out and help.
In 2011, we donated over 2500 pounds. Keep an eye on the front page of our website to track our progress. We have a dedicated team of volunteers for the garden and are always excited about welcoming more people.
Market- This season we have a farm stand on our property at 7217 W. Liberty Rd. We are excited about this new opportunity and have many ideas planned. We have recipes available each week, tours of our operations, fresh baked bread and more. We are open on Sunday mornings from 11:45 to 12:45.
We will also be exploring the possibility of selling our wares to local restaurants. If you are interested, please contact us at 734-277-4271. The wonderful thing about selling some of our produce is that it will increase Wishing Tree Gardens financial stability and provide us with the resources to do more with the community. Please help us in reaching this goal by coming out and buying locally grown, great tasting food!
Beauty- We are also planning a 5 acre flower garden inspired by Monet's gardens in Giverny, France. This wonderful space will be a mulit year project. Now that the land has been cleared of invasive species and planted with a cover crop, we are ready to begin planting this season. Over 200 roses bushes will be established along with lavender and many other flowers. We have planted a small garden to experiment with different plant combinations and lay outs. Wishing Tree Gardens is also preserving and enhancing a natural wetland area so that local wildlife may thrive.
BEES
Yippee! Our bee hive survived the winter! This last winter was a rough one for bees all over Michigan and the midwest. Bees don't hibernate so they stay awake all winter living on their stores of honey. The sustained frigid temperatures this past winter forced many hives to consume all of their honey before the end of the cold weather. Those who ran out provisions did not make it to spring. Happily, our hive pulled through.
Fun Bee Fact: Since they don't hibernate, bees are the first pollinators available to all our early spring plants. They help to get our gardens going earlier and faster.
Bees at WTG will kick off on April 16th this year. We have new bees coming and need to set up their homes and do some housekeeping on the existing hives. At WTG, we will have three hives on our property. When you come to visit us this season, please give the hives plenty of space. New hives are very touchy and don't like visitors. In fact, if they are too disturbed, they will leave to find quieter digs elsewhere. However, keep an eye out for our bees while you are in the garden. If you are lucky, you will get to see our honey bees at work! "The girls" (as all those busy bees are female) make our gardens more productive both in the amount and quality of produce. Go Bees!