Community gardens are (pardon the cliché) growing like weeds, or maybe zucchini in July, in urban areas. Proof of that—twice!—is right in the heart of Williamsport. At 724 Park Avenue, behind the Williamsport YMCA and across the street from the Williamsport branch of UPMC, is the Salvation Army Community Garden and Urban Farm. Over at 844 West Fourth Street, behind the Trinity Episcopal Church, on a plot of land leased from the Park Place company, church members and attendees have boxes for residents and community groups to grow flowers and vegetables.

The purpose of these community gardens/urban farms are to beautify the local neighborhoods, offer education, and provide food for people who need the extra help.

One third grader who lives in Williamsport with his mom and sister has seen firsthand the power of what a garden can do. Meet David Erskine, and his younger sister, Apphia. David discovered working with his hands spending time in the Salvation Army’s garden two summers back. He and Apphia, along with their mother, Kaia, have been working with gardens ever since. It has changed David’s life for the better.

He says he’s happy to be working with his mother and sister on this.

“Gardening can relax your mind,” David says. “If something bad happens or something weird happens, then you can just think about stuff [like gardening].”

“Many times, I talk about David when I'm talking about the garden,” says Sid Furst, master gardener and volunteer leader of the Salvation Army Community Garden. “If you charted his behavioral characteristics, he was wild. But [after eight weeks in the garden, thanks to summer camp], he became extremely focused, extremely interested, and extremely involved.”

When Lycoming College students “pulled up in a van [to volunteer], David got up from the picnic table and walked over to the van and said to the students, ‘I’m your guide,’” Sid recalls. “Even after the summer, David and his sister continued volunteering in the garden.”

Sid explains that the garden fits in with the mission of the Salvation Army, which is the “spread of the word of Jesus Christ in a nondiscriminatory way that helps people.”

And there are always people who need help. Sid estimates as many as 40,000 Lycoming County residents (total population is 114,188, according to the 2020 census) are having food insecurity issues.

“They’re having nutrition issues, which means well-being. And they’re having whatever social, emotional impact all that has. Gardening, not only in terms of growing things but the socialization, the physical activity, the emotional activity, the spiritual activity, all help the total well-being. Gardening gives the power of hope and the power of a positive attitude. In many ways, [gardening] is a powerful medicine in your body.”

This is not the first time this garden has helped a family.

“There was a woman and her son who came here. I was working in the back garden where we had tomato plants,” Sid remembers. “She said to her son ‘Look at those tomatoes, aren’t they beautiful?’ and her son said, ‘Oh they’re so beautiful I wish I could get you some.’”

Sid says the woman turned to him and admitted she was unable to afford them.

“I said to her, ‘Every tomato in this garden is a tomato for you,’” and then he helped her bag them. “I realized this garden can’t solve the world’s problems but it can help an individual one at a time.”

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Nearby is the garden program members of the Trinity Episcopal Church have established. It’s a second green space where the Erskine trio have planted themselves.

The Trinity garden got its start in the fall of 2022 with ten raised garden plots filled with enriched soil. Father Ken Wagner-Pizza says this garden gives Trinity a chance to “reach back to the community and help there.”

The hope, he continues, is that “this would, in a tangible...way, be a piece of healing of both creation and relationships as part of the beloved community of Williamsport.”

He adds that much of the financial credit for creating this garden goes to Shaped by Faith, a grant program from the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and donations from local businesses, community members, and parishioners. Through the Seed to Supper garden classes offered at the church by Warren and Lee Robinson, the three Erskines became caregivers of one of the ten garden boxes.

In David’s words, “It feels great to be back in the garden!

“[There is an] extreme improvement in his self-esteem, and I think that’s helped his overall behavior,” says Kaia. “David had to repeat second grade and he felt the need to try to be extra funny and extra cool, to win people over, but when he became so passionate about gardening he no longer felt the need to be the silliest person in the room. It gives him an outlet.”

“I love going to see new people here,” Apphia chimes in. “I’m also really excited to see the plants grow up and then we can see how big they get. My favorite ones would probably be the cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes.”

“I like them both [flowers and vegetables] but I like sunflowers,” David says. “My favorite is fruits and vegetables because I really like apples, carrots, corn, cucumbers, oranges, bananas, and all that kind of stuff.”

There are probably never going to be oranges or bananas growing in Williamsport. But, thanks to the two opportunities for gardening offered by the Salvation Army and Trinity Episcopal Church, David, Apphia, and Kaia Erskine, and others without home gardens, can grow their gardening skills, and will always have a place to bond and to help their neighbors.

Find out more at pa.salvationarmy.org/williamsport-pa and at trinity-williamsport.diocpa.org.