The Community Garden is dedicated to Rose Varner, her children (Jane, David, Margaret, William, Hannah, Eliza, Lavenia, James Marion Varner) and their many descendants.

2025 Focus - Enhance the Wassamasaw Tribe Community Garden for Food Sovereignty

Thank you everyone who is helping with the Wassamasaw Tribal Community Garden dedicated to Rose Varner and her descendants. We began with a few rows in 2023 and expanded to 2 acres in 2024.  The tribal goal is to provide a sustainable food source for the Wassamasaw Tribe.  Education is a key component of this project, and it is driven by community leadership to ensure long-term sustainability. The program incorporates both traditional knowledge and modern techniques to build resilience and increase climate change adaptation. Key educational elements include:

Elders as Knowledge Keepers:

Elders lead intergenerational workshops to pass on knowledge of traditional farming techniques, land stewardship, and adaptation strategies.

Youth-Led Learning:

Youth engage in hands-on activities, working alongside elders to learn about sustainable farming, soil regeneration, and water conservation. This helps to foster a generation of leaders who are connected to both their cultural heritage and modern climate adaptation strategies.

Everyone is welcome to contribute to the community garden and we look forward to growing this initiative each year. To join the Garden Committee, email wassamasaw@hotmail.com.

Our goals for 2025:  Finish the Senior Raised Bed Area, Start our Cattle Program, Renovate the Barn, Begin a Youth Raised Bed and Outdoor teaching area, and finally to install a metal building with bathrooms, kitchen, food storage, and classroom area so that we can use as a food distribition point as well as a place to conduct educational classes at the farm and garden.

The Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians has proudly completed a transformative renovation of our community farm barn thanks to the support of the 2025 Lowe’s Hometowns Grant. What began as a storm-damaged structure—severely impacted by Hurricane Helene—has been reborn as a fully functional, accessible, and revitalized hub for the Tribe’s growing food sovereignty program.

Work began in late August, shortly after the Tribe received the announcement of this highly competitive national grant. With coordination from the Tribal Board and unwavering community dedication, the project moved swiftly. Board leaders supervised the demolition of the collapsed roof, the unsafe lean-to structures, and the rotted flooring, carefully organizing each phase to ensure the structure could be safely rebuilt.

Lowe’s Red Vest volunteers played a pivotal role in the transformation. The first Red Vest Day brought a hardworking team of Lowe’s employees to the site, where they helped load destroyed roof materials, broken boards, and debris into dumpsters and assisted in removing the compromised wood flooring. Their energy and teamwork set the stage for reconstruction. The second Red Vest Day, held after the new construction was complete, focused on painting—giving the remodeled barn a clean, refreshed, and unified look that symbolized a new chapter for the Tribe’s agricultural efforts.

By early November, the barn stood completely transformed. The Tribe installed a new, higher roof with windows, rebuilt two lean-tos, and poured a durable concrete floor to replace the unsafe wooden boards. Electricity was added for the first time, providing interior lighting and exterior spotlights that allow the barn to be used safely year-round. Under one of the lean-tos, the team constructed a vegetable wash station with a sink and mesh drying racks—an essential addition that now allows freshly harvested produce to be cleaned and prepared on-site.

The renovation represents far more than a building upgrade. For the Wassamasaw Tribe, it is a symbol of resilience, restoration, and partnership. The revitalized barn strengthens the Tribe’s capacity to grow and distribute fresh foods, host educational workshops, and engage youth, elders, and volunteers in sustainable agriculture. The space now stands as a testament to what can be achieved when community vision, cultural stewardship, and corporate partnership come together.

With the support of the Lowe’s Hometowns Grant and the dedication of both the Tribal Board and the Lowe’s volunteer teams, the Wassamasaw Tribe has not only restored a building—we have strengthened the foundation of our food sovereignty work for generations to come.

The 2024 year was very successful. We purchased our very own tractor for the farm, put up a tool shed, and put up a new gate and sign! We were able to put up an 8 foot deer fence around the perimeter of the 2 acres we are using to garden, as well as purchase and set up irrigation containers to help with watering the vegetables. Thanks to all of the community members who came out for planting day. We had a very good crop of corn, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, mustards, lettuce, and other vegetables from the garden. Food was distributed at the tribal events, members were able to come out to the garden to pick their own vegetables, and food bags were given out to some of the tribal elders. More lessons were learned this year and we got one high tunnel fully completed. Thank you to the Garden Committee for all their hard work. We are getting closer to food sovereignty as a tribe!

Unfortunately, in October we did get some damage from Hurricane Helene. A tree beside the barn fell and damaged the side wall, and the tin roof of the barn was severely damaged. We also had damage to one of the high tunnels that we have been able to now repair. For the barn repairs, since they are much more extensive, we will be working on funding in 2025 to fully renovate it by redoing the roof, and resupporting the structure and adding back a lean to section on each side for our equiment to be stored under. See pictures of the hurricane damage. Anyone wishes to volunteer to help, please email wassamasaw@hotmail.com to let us know.

Cutting the grass to get ready to till

Bottom plowing and spreading the lime & ready to fertilize

Cultivating the ground, around the rain showers

Creating the rows

Changing out the attachments

Putting down the plastic to start planting

Planting day

Spouts & more growth

Plants beginning to mature

Ready to harvest

Figuring Out How to Put up High Tunnels