The community garden continues to grow five years later.
The Community Garden was created in the late summer and early fall of 2015. Rev. Dr. Blake Harwell of First Baptist Church, Rev. Steven Evans, then of Friendship AME, and Dr. Kendra Hamilton, an English professor at PC, met during the spring five years ago.
They were working on the Nat Fuller Feast, a racial reconciliation that PC's Southern Studies program had sponsored as a community event during the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
"Blake wanted a way to keep the positive energy of that event going," Hamilton said, "and so he and Steven settled on the idea of a garden as a way to bring beauty, satisfy community needs, and demonstrate what a grassroots, interracial, intergenerational coalition might look like.
"They knew that along with my husband, Marc McVicker, a professional horticulturist, I had founded or participated in three other community gardening programs in Virginia."
McVicker contributed the design for a dozen raised beds and with eventual plans for a covered work pavilion and community space. Rev. Evans convinced local businessman Young Dendy to donate the land in return for a "modest annual rent," according to Hamilton. The City of Clinton installed water, and Rev. Harwell made calls to the business community and raised $13,000 to get the garden started.
"People from both churches and local community 'do-ers' like Susan Galloway showed up to do the work," Hamilton said. "And things just grew from there."
A board composed of those who have been with the garden since the beginning and newcomers who are drawn to the work keep the garden going. PC students have been a part of the network from the start.
"So there are people who show up every week and community groups from churches, from the Federated Women's Club, from local businesses, and others who come in for group work days," Hamilton said.
They work alongside volunteers to grow "stuff people like to eat," according to Hamilton.
Tomatoes, squash, beans and zucchini are grown in the summer. The fall garden this year will feature collards, kale, rutabagas, turnips and spinach.
"We allow people to glean according to their need," Hamilton said. "Anything that's left over is donated to the United Ministries or Lydia Presbyterian food banks.
"We welcome all comers. But gardens grow best when people lay their hands on them every day. People walk through the garden, sit in the garden and soak the atmosphere up, work in the garden just about every day during the growing season."
Hamilton herself first tried to grow flowers from seed when she was six years old.
"I think I inherited my green thumb from my maternal grandmother, who was a farm wife in Ninety-Six," she said. "She had flowers and fruit trees and a HUGE vegetable garden, and she canned and baked and did everything the old way, from scratch.
"I was also taught by my paternal aunt, who had an amazing garden at her house in Goose Creek and taught me all the Gullah and Geechee garden 'secrets.'"
Hamilton says she didn't get a garden of her own until she was in her 40s.
"I've had to create and abandon several gardens I loved passionately because my work took me elsewhere," she said.
She references Matthew 13:1-23, the Parable of the Sower, when asked why it's important for her to volunteer in the garden.
"We're always looking for new gardeners and new garden board members. Please come join us!" she says.
About PC: Presbyterian College is between Columbia and Greenville, in the college town of Clinton, S.C. At PC, we’re noted as much for our challenging academics as we are for our one-of-a-kind mascot: the Blue Hose. Our students are one-of-a-kind too: They bring their own interests and abilities to campus and pursue them with gusto. Students customize their education by choosing from 50-plus majors and pre-professional programs. They’re taught and mentored by a faculty whose #1 priority is their students’ success. Students research, intern, and study abroad. And they get involved on campus, a place defined by honor and ethics. PC prepares students to be fulfilled personally and professionally so they can contribute to today’s global society.
