2025 HCG Report

Harvest Community Garden Annual Report for 2025

(HCG) is a nonprofit organization that enables people from the community to come together to grow produce organically and donate half of it to Metrocrest Services’ food pantry.

We are a member of Community Gardens of Carrollton (501c3) and are located on the south side of Redeemer Covenant Church’s property at 1518 E. Frankford Road, Carrollton, TX.

In 2025 Harvest Community Garden donated a total of 1,580 pounds to Metrocrest Services
We donated tomatoes and peppers of many kinds; fruits like blackberries and various melons; root vegetables like beets, carrots, radishes, and turnips; leafy greens like kale, lettuce, spinach, and mustard; herbs like cilantro, basil, and oregano; many varieties of beans and peas; garlic and onion varieties; okra; potatoes and sweet potatoes; asparagus; cucumbers and eggplants; and more.

Garden membership: For only $40, members of the community can adopt one of the 24 raised beds (20’ x 4’) for a year. ($20 for a half plot.) This year, 16 gardeners adopted 23 of our 24 plots. The remaining plot was farmed by the community of gardeners and volunteers.

2025 At a Glance:

We donated 1,580 lbs. of fresh, organically grown produce to Metrocrest Services food pantry.
Our formal harvest schedule and roster began April 12^th and ended November 25^th.
It was a good year for asparagus, but an early freeze wiped out much of our winter crop. Then a very dry March followed by a very wet April led to an invasion of pill bugs and early blight which hit spring crops hard, especially tomatoes. Then a dry summer and unusually warm fall followed by a very wet November made for a challenging fall growing season. November 10^th was the first freeze for the coming winter.
In both spring and fall, we provided seeds, transplants, and compost for gardeners, as well as fertilizer, tools, and pest control products. We also sprayed all the beds with beneficial nematodes.
Justin Tree Services provided several loads of mulch throughout the year.

2025 Highs and Lows:

Zucchini Experiment: In April, we tried growing Calabacitia Zucchina Squash and Mexican Grey Summer Squash in plot one, hoping they would be more resistant to pest infestation. The zucchini didn’t have any squash vine borer problems! However, a squash bug infestation became too big to control, so we pulled it out. Disappointing.
Monarch Butterfly Habitat: We received our certificate and installed the 2 signs and waystations in January.
Rainwater Elementary’s 4^th grade classes visited the garden on March 20th. They made observations, drew pictures of what they saw, asked questions, and made a report.
New Mosaic Sign: Karen finished making the sign and it was installed in May! (Sadly, she then moved out of state and we miss her!)
Theft/Vandalism: Despite the signs we put up, we still had trouble with theft of compost, blackberries, and other produce this year. A neighbor was caught and confronted in June. In July, the church put a lock on the dumpster and gave the combination to the gardeners to use, but someone from the neighborhood has been breaking the lock.

Volunteer Opportunities:

Anyone is welcome to help with Saturday morning harvesting and weeding gardens and pathways. The garden also has an asparagus patch, blackberries, a pollinator garden, and a xeriscape garden which volunteers can help care for.

In 2025, groups of 3 to 24 UTD students helped 3 times in the spring and 5 in the fall, for a total of 170 volunteer hours. They spread mulch, repaired fences, trimmed berries, cleaned up and planted beds, cleaned the shed, helped with irrigation, and more.

Meetings:

1/18/25 @ 8:30 a.m. Board Meeting at Redeemer
1/25 @ 9 a.m. Annual Garden Meeting & Open House (returning members)
Stan met with prospective gardeners individually as they showed interest.
Stan and Kim represented HCG at the Carrollton Annual Citizens Evening

Finances:

We began the year with $753.64 and ended with $475.09.
We received $500 from Nebraska Furniture Mart in February for the gift wrapping we did 12/24.
We spent $495 on pest control.
We applied for a grant from Nebraska Furniture Mart but it was awarded to another garden.
Our website cost went from $215 to $317.

Special thanks to:

Karen Gilboux for creating the mosaic sign
Justin Tree Service for providing mulch numerous times
Have Pesticide Will Travel for rodent control
The HCG Board is made up of our chairman, a representative of The Community Gardens of Carrollton, 3 community members, and 2 Redeemer Church representatives.
–Stan Basnett (Chair) – running everything!
–Steven Pliler (Community member) – organizing the harvest roster all year
–Kim Lester (Community member) – coordinating all the volunteers
–Linda Jilek (Community member) – posting on Facebook
–Lori Vriend (Redeemer representative) – hosting the fourth-grade class and updating the website
–Sean Flynn (Redeemer representative)
–Cindy Baxley (Community Gardens of Carrollton representative)