The quarter-acre plot thickened today, April 18, as volunteers, equipped with gloves, hammers, shovels, forks, rakes, and the will to get dirty converged at Longfellow Creek Community Garden Park for it’s annual spring work party in conjunction with Earth Day.

The creek hugs the garden’s eastern border. The opposite side borders 24th Avenue between Myrtle and Willow streets two blocks north of the Home Depot.

Transplanted alumni from St. Olaf College, near Minneapolis, volunteered at the garden for the second year in a row.

“I know it’s a cliché, but we want to beautify the community,” said Edmonds resident Heidi Napolitano who was digging in with her husband.

The organization’s directors are Jayne Simmons, a professional “edible landscaper,” Phil Parsons, and Jason and Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby. They each live within a few blocks of the site, a former certified organic garden, and credit the veggies for connecting their neighborhood, which they say has become safer.

“The neighborhood has really changed in the last eight years,” said Simmons. “A lot of neighbors have now become our friends, our children’s friends, and friends of the garden, too. We hope more people who live right by the garden get involved.”

Simmons pointed out some of the herbs, and described in her words their medicinal value.

“There’s a patch of yarrow,” she said. “It is known to reduce fever. And we have hyssop over here, an effective expectorant. And mother wart, which the old medicinal (guides) say is for ‘women’s hysteria.’” It’s also good for a laugh as she giggled when revealing this herb’s attribute.

Volunteer Roberta Morrow was shifting things around, and planting strawberries in a former garlic patch.

Said Morrow, “I hope the strawberries don’t taste like garlic.”