By Grace Mahannah

Among community gardens in Butte County, The Garden at St. Timothy’s in Gridley is notable for offering people a full-circle experience, from growing, gleaning, and preserving food, to composting food waste.

The Garden at St. Timothy’s is located at 450 Jackson Street in Gridley, next door to St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. It opened to the public in 2023 with 20 newly-built garden beds for rent. Plots are affordably priced at 50 cents per square foot per year, with the cost of water included, and the garden space is open year-round. The church wanted to offer the community a garden both useful and beautiful, to encourage people to participate in caring for creation by growing food with their neighbors, thereby increasing food security in Butte County. 

Now almost fully rented with 13 gardeners on board, The Garden at St. Timothy’s has grown into an active community of gardeners and volunteers. They meet monthly to learn more about gardening and enjoy one another’s company, as well as support and direct the operations of the garden and also the affiliated composting and food preserving programs. Garden meetings are usually the second Saturday of the month at 10am and are always open to the public; all are welcome.

Recent improvements to The Garden include the completion of a sturdy, 8’ x 16’ greenhouse, funded by a grant from the Episcopal Foundation of Northern California. Gardeners got together in February to start seeds in pots and seed trays in the greenhouse, and these have produced an abundance of seedling plants: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and flowers for The Garden and for giving away to the community. Another exciting addition to The Garden is an espalier structure for fruit trees, so that the limbs of the trees can be tied to the trellis, much like grapevines, for efficient use of the garden space. Email st.timothygarden@gmail.com or call Grace at 530 218-6636 for more information on the community garden at St. Timothy’s.

Preserving Food with Friends grew out of The Garden at St. Timothy’s, because local gardeners wanted to learn how to preserve the food they grow or glean nearby.  Instructors Kathy Mahannah, Briana Swanson, and Grace Mahannah all completed UC Master Food Preserver training in Sacramento County in 2024, prior to launching Preserving Food with Friends at St. Timothy’s. 

The preserving program features demonstrations of safe, research-based preserving techniques including steam and boiling water canning of jams and other fruit spreads, pie fillings, tomato products and vinegar pickles; pressure canning of low acid vegetables, meats and soups; fermentation for pickling vegetables and sauerkraut; and dehydration of fruit and vegetable products and meat jerky. Classes highlight Butte County’s seasonal produce throughout the year and meet at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church (410 Jackson Street, Gridley) on the first Saturday of every month except December.

Preserving Food with Friends has grown steadily since its launch in June 2024 and is now transitioning to hands-on classes where attendees can fully participate in preserving foods. Under the supervision of instructors, participants who want to try their hand at food preserving will be able to complete a project from start to finish during a two-hour class. 

The program hopes to accommodate as many hands-on participants as possible, but space is limited and offered on a first come, first served basis. Those who want to try the hands-on experience should sign in early, but everyone who attends will receive a complete demonstration including a packet of recipes and information. Classes are always free, and all are welcome.

Participant feedback about the Preserving Food with Friends program has been overwhelmingly positive. Classes are friendly and fun, and attendees appreciate the opportunity to learn or rediscover techniques for preserving food that they remember from their mother’s or grandmother’s generation. 

As one recent attendee stated, “Everything was fantastic! Perfect day learning to preserve. . . . I’m leaving today knowing I can do this! I hope to share what I learned with friends and plan to make jam with kids and (the) berries from our garden.”  The Preserving Food with Friends schedule for 2025 can be found on Facebook; upcoming classes include Kosher dill pickles in June and preserving stone fruits (peaches, plums, apricots) in July. For more information, email preservingfoodwithfriends@gmail.com or call Kathy at 530 777-8469.

Another outgrowth of The Garden at St. Timothy’s is the Drop in the Bucket composting program, which began in 2023 with help from Butte Environmental Council (BEC). People in the community save kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper napkins) and drop them off at the garden to be composted. 

The program expanded in 2024 to include four compost bins, helped along by a generous grant from CalRecycle administered by California Alliance for Community Composting. All of the finished compost is used right at the garden or offered for free to those who donate kitchen scraps. Drop in the Bucket is a working example of urban composting on a small scale, diverting organic waste from the landfill while creating healthy compost for community use. To sign up, go to www.becnet.org/composting and scroll down to find the link to Gridley, or call Grace at 530 218-6636.

From growing food to preserving seasonal produce to composting food waste, The Garden at St. Timothy’s takes a full-circle approach to caring for nature and feeding people. Above all, The Garden has gathered a kind and generous community of individuals who help one another learn and share what they grow and what they know. Visitors are always welcome and volunteers are always needed; The Garden at St. Timothy’s is always open, so come by and take a look! 

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system.  To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website.  If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.