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A Gardener's Notebook: The latest incarnation of my column detailing the trails and tribulations of my garden. Join the list and ask your own questions about gardening Subscribe

The holiday season always brings a rededication of efforts to help those less fortunate in the world . The Salvation Army stands on street corners, charities increase mailings and television advertising and free meals are served throughout the country. As gardener’s, though, we are in a unique position to help people not only during the holidays, but throughout the entire year.

Plant a row for the hungry

In one on-going effort the Garden Writers of America developed a program called "Plant a row for the hungry." Each year, thousands of gardeners plant extra rows in their gardens and donate the produce to local food banks. These donations have a direct and immediate impact on people’s lives and allow food banks to use monetary donations to develop other necessary services. You can get further information on this program by visiting the GWAA web site. Maybe you and your fellow gardeners can develop your own local effort to help the food banks in your area.

On your own

You don’t need to be involved in a big program or project to help those around you. Gardeners often share the bounty of their gardens with friends, neighbors and relatives. During the summer months I often find a parade of produce, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, passing by my door. The next time you have extra, why not drop it by your food bank. I can assure you that they, and the people they help, will be very grateful.

I often walk through my neighborhood and bemoan the waste of all the fruit that is left to rot. Too often we treat our orange, lemon and grapefruit trees as mere ornamentals. We might eat an occasional fruit but most is left to whither. On my walks I also see grapevines, peach trees, olive trees and more. This year I am going to make an effort to develop a system to get some of this produce donated to a local food bank. I figure that volunteers could be found to harvest the fruit on a regular basis, leaving some for the owner of the tree and taking the rest to be turned into meals for the hungry.

Food for the soul

While food stuffs like produce can fill a hungry stomach you can also provide some food for the soul. Do you have more ornamental flowers than you can possibly display? Perhaps your local garden group can get together and build floral arrangements for a local senior center, hospice or hospital. Sharing the beauty of my garden always brings me happiness and so many of us have so much to share. You could even arrange a garden tour of you and your neighbors’ gardens for a small fee and donate the proceeds to charity.

Sometimes the smallest efforts are the most appreciated. Take a bunch of daisies to a local neighbor who can’t go out. Bring flowers and produce to your office to share with your co-workers. Invite a friend to have tea in your garden in the middle of a hectic week. Whatever you do, sharing the beauty and bounty of our gardens can increase our love of gardening and of our fellow men and women.