Change the world, 1 garden at a time

SANDUSKY — The Hancock Street Community Garden is looking for people — young and old — to attend a planting and pizza party starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 22, and to be part of a great summer experience. The sustainable garden offers a lot more than pizza and Pepsi on planting day, according to its coordinator. "It gives people a sense of accomplishment. When you work with your hands it's so refreshing and it's rewarding. You're working with soil, outside; it's just so rejuvenating, too," said Kathie Hammond, a master gardener volunteer with the Erie County Master Gardener's program. "Teaching your children to grow their own food and enjoy that fresh taste is so important." Hammond, who was a guest on "Between the Lines" on location at the community garden on Monday, said the party later this month is the start of an experience she hopes will change people's understanding of what it means to be a gardener. Watch the program at sanduskyregister.com or at the Register's YouTube channel. It will give participants the opportunity to grow their own vegetables they can take home to eat. "If you want to change the world we can do it one garden at a time," said Hammond, the community garden coordinator in cooperation with the city of Sandusky and the Erie County Health Department and other Master Gardener volunteers. Among the food planned for the garden are cherry tomatoes, two or three larger tomato plants, red peppers, green peppers, jalapeno and Hungarian peppers, banana peppers, onions, lettuce and radishes, collard greens, basil, oregano, sage, chives and thyme. The garden also will have flowers, daisies, black-eyed susans and other varieties. The Hancock Street Community Garden was started by Talon Flohr, when he worked as the neighborhood liaison for the city of Sandusky. Flohr, tragically, died in 2021, but the garden he started is being resurrected this year after not being active for two years due to the pandemic. Hammond said children and their parents, neighbors and anyone interested can be part of the community garden. Participants can tend to the garden anytime they want but Master Gardener volunteers will be there each Saturday from 10 a.m. until at least noon.