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Synergy Garden

Clemson Extension works with a local church to create a community garden. Transcript: -We started this program in 2015. It's a collaboration between Clemson Extension and the Freshwater Coast Community Foundation. With this collaboration, we were able to come up with a plan for Rural Development in the entire region. We're able to teach classes on how to open a business, teach classes for farmers and small businesses. In McCormick in particular, which is McCormick County, was pretty much divided in terms of demographics, so the idea of the farmers market is more than just, you know, having the growers and the community supporting the growers. It's a place that people meet each other. People start looking for opportunities for them to be part of thelarger picture of McCormick County. --I love it because it brings all groups together. Everybody. Coming here and having conversations and we're breaking down barriers between groups and people and I think that's perfect. Just wonderful. -So the growth is exponential. We are now the fourth largest farmers market in the entire region. --We started off with just a few hundred, but it has been shown that the community needs and wants a market. -Agriculture is a great component, that's why Clemson Extension is involved in the rural development piece of this, because it goes beyond the farm gate. It goes beyond agriculture, but agriculture is the core, as you can see is a core, that people can join efforts to stay in the county and invest in the county. —This is what life’s about. It’s about family, it's about eating well, it's about camaraderie and getting along with your town and knowing the community. And that's what I'm seeing happen. And it's just wonderful. -When you find the midpoint that you can stay in your local community, and still thrive in the local community that's probably the best lifestyle you see people having South Carolina nowadays. -When we bought the property (we have about 22 acres) and we didn't want to waste the property, we wanted to use it for the community. And what better way than have a garden? A couple of members of our congregation were already part of the Synergy Garden when it was at the Community Service Center. They were not able to go back and have a garden there, and so they were discouraged and thought their gardening days were over and we were just beginning. --I worked with the previous site and helped them along with the gain of the information with the Extension Service. I got excited when I knew it was moving out to this property because that's closer to me and I would be able to help it a bit more often. And plus, expanded the garden tremendously. -I told them we had the land, we had the support, if they could bring some of their expertise and their volunteers we would get along great. --So, when the church purchased the property they had to totally transform it into church grounds. And then the Synergy came in: the being a part of and the feeding the community, feeding the hungry, feeding those who wanted fresh farm vegetables and that’s how the Extension Service came to be, too. We continued our service to help educate and pass the knowledge on and how to garden organically. -Danny's been great. I don't know what his official title is but we call him the Savior of the Garden at times. --What we do for the passing on knowledge, we give the planting dates and the spacing of the plants, how to put the plants in, the ones that are disease resistant since this is organic garden that's a big concept. There's nothing wrong with old technology and still just hoeing and picking off and being a such a small garden, we have so many hands here working you can do that. -You name it, he’s hooked us up with a lot of people, so his knowledge has been invaluable. --You know you, usually you used to do in the old days, you used to go visit on Sundays on people’s front porch and talk. Now we do it at the garden. -Just by letting the congregation and the community know, hey we're gonna plant today, we need a lot of volunteers and they'll show up. So the most we've had out here one time is about 65 and that's all ages. --You get to see the young people get a good start in life, get to see what gardening is all about. It gives them a excellent hobby to start off with and gives them a door into the 4-H program. -It is great for them to get to realize where the food comes from, to see things grow. Our goal is to continue to build community, to build groups that will meet here, work in the garden, use the pavilion, eat together, come on the playground play together, just get to know each other, take as much healthy food home with them as they can eat and the rest of it will take to the food banks so that everyone can enjoy the produce and the community, continue to grow and see new people, new faces and just get to know people better.