Take some lumber, a little soil, seeds and add some caring members of the local community and a few more people will have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Members of the Lake Washington United Methodist Church, which is located near the Redmond-Kirkland border, and some Eagle Scouts have come together to help build a community pea patch “First Fruits Community Garden” on the church’s property.

“The church is rich in property and it is pretty well used,” said gardening committee member Sharon Sherrard. “We have the coop, preschool and we host tent city but we thought we could do more.”

The pea patch is comprised of three raised 4-foot by 16-foot beds, divided in half for a total of six individual plots. All six plots are taken but the group is planning to create a fourth bed.

“We would love to expand further if we see the need,” said Sherrard. “We definitely have the room.”

Sherrard said that the interest in the pea patch shows that there is a need.

“They had to turn people away so I definitely think there is a need,” said Sherrard, who admitted that she is on the gardening team for lack of a green thumb. But Sherrard’s husband Tom is a Master Gardener and helped with the planning of the pea patch.

Gardening committee member Rebecca Baldwin said that the group has talked about lining the area by the parking lot with beds if the interest is there.  The group initially got great interest from partitioners but interest has since cooled.

“We wanted to give people in the community who live in apartments, who may not have a place to grow their own food, a place to garden,” said Baldwin.

Ten percent of all harvests will be donated to a local food bank.

“The Bible talks about giving the first fruits, not the last,” said Sherrard. “It also says to tithe 10 percent. You don’t have to be a church member to be a part of this.”

One of the gardeners, Jan Blaud, is planning to donate all of her harvest to the food bank.

The only thing that the church asks of gardeners is to give a donation to offset the cost of water during the summer.

The idea for the pea patch came from the Bothell United Methodist Church’s pea patch.

Constructing the pea patch fell on the shoulders of Boy Scouts Tim Williams and Sam Watanabe, who were both working their way towards the rank of Eagle Scout. Both boys are part of Boy Scout Troop 577. Williams, who is not a member of the church, built the three raised beds and Watanabe, a church member, built the corresponding compost bin.

“I went on the internet and found some instructions and it took some figuring out but it was not too hard,” said Watanabe, who raised $1,000 from church members for the project. “It was nice to be able to give back to the church.”

The boys worked to get all of the materials donated. de Jong Sawdust & Shavings in Redmond donated all of the soils and sawdust to the project.

“It is also a bit relieving to get my Eagle rank,” said Watanabe.

As a result, Williams has earned the rank of Eagle Scout and Watanabe is not too far behind.

The garden also has a place on the church’s Web site www.lwumc.com for more information.

The first vegetables have already begun to sprout up in Blaud’s plot, fittingly enough it is lettuce and … peas.