Community Garden

UCCVF Community Garden 2025

The 2nd Annual UCCVF Seed Swap was a HUGE success!
Thanks to everyone who attended and volunteered.
Check out our Facebook page for photos and a list of winners of our Raffle Bags.

Are you planning on starting seeds indoors? Here is some information that might help you:

Check the back of your seed packet to see if you should start the seeds indoors. Some plants don’t transplant well and should be started outdoors (direct sow).
Check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone map to determine your zone. The UCCVF Community Garden is in zone is in zone 7a. You really don’t have to go to this website but it is very interesting!
Go to the Farmer’s Almanac to look up the last chance of spring frost in your zip code. Our estimated Last Spring Frost date is April 15th.
Look at the back of your seed packet again and find out how many weeks before last frost you should start your seeds.
Check your calendar and start growing!

A Little History

In March 2023 UCCVF we created our Community Garden. We decided that almost all of our produce would be donated to the Great Valley Food Cupboard. Our volunteers take turns weekly to care for all of the beds in the garden.

About the UCCVF Community Garden

Our CG is mostly vegetables with some companion plants (flowers or herbs that might keep bugs, rabbits, and deer away). Most of our produce is donated to the Great Valley Food Cupboard. See below for what our volunteers do.

How can you help?

Volunteer to help in the community garden! Contact us at gardens@uccvf.org.

What we do when

Grow from seed starting in February
- We usually grow tomatoes, peppers, etc. from seed indoors.
- We draw out a garden plan. We have 3 new beds and 2 new trellis since last year. We adapt the plan based on what plants survive and ideas from the volunteers.
Spring Clean Up Day
- Before Mother’s Day all the volunteers are invited to get the garden ready for planting.
Planting Day
- Around Mother’s Day all the volunteers are invited to help plant the vegetables, flowers, and herbs that are ready for planting.
- Usually, Pastor Nathaniel blesses our garden at this time.
Care for the garden while it grows
- From planting day through the whole growing season we ask volunteers to sign up for a week at a time to weed, water, and prop up plants as needed in the garden.
Harvest Days
- The first harvest date depends on what we end up planting.
- Harvesting is Monday nights starting at 5pm. If you are late it is not a problem. We are usually there for more than 1/2 an hour.
Prepare Harvest for Donation
- We prepare our food for donation by washing all produce and placing it in single serving containers.
- The containers are strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, tomato, etc. plastic containers you get at the food store. These containers are donated by our congregation. We wash these containers, too.
Donating our produce
- Great Valley Food Cupboard accepts donations on Tuesdays between 10 am and 11 am. The GVFC is at the Great Valley Baptist Church which is just 1 mile from UCCVF.
- The GVFC provides food to approximately 20 families. Their families love the fresh produce!
- Our CG was created 2 growing seasons ago. Each year we have donated over 200 lbs to the GVFC from our tiny CG.
Produce given to UCCVF congregation
- Since harvest for donations is Monday there may be additional produce ready for harvesting later in the week that will be too ripe on the following Monday. Our church admin will often pick what is ripe and put it out for people to help themselves. We usually get a bounty of tomatoes and cucumbers

Would you like to help grow fresh produce for the Great Valley Food Cupboard? We would love to meet you. Please Contact Us