Last spring St Stephen’s Mimi Me’s Pre-School 4-year-old class spotted a perfect location to create a Fairy Garden among the remains of a large tree stump.  The site was near the stone wall that surrounds the children’s playground.  The Olesh family, who planted flowers along the wall (and some are still blooming) also donated flowering plants that the children could incorporate into their Fairy Garden.  Each child planted one of the flowering donations that included ageratum, marigold, petunias and more.  They then created a “fairy world” around a quaint, ceramic house nestled along the tree stump…walkways made of pebbles, streams of blue flat, marbles, small ceramic benches, signs posts, and tiny animals.  Since the fairies don’t stay around when the weather is cold, they packed up their house & put it in storage until next year.  And we look forward to their return!  

Dee Steeger

St. Stephen Parish Vegetable Garden – 2023 Season

The 2023 vegetable garden season began with a delivery of new soil for the beds and mulch for the walkways. It took the Pirovitz and Olesh families the better part of a workday to get the beds and walkways filled and prepared, with help from Doug Krauze and Tom Mallaney. The silver maple inside the garden was trimmed before planting the vegetables and then trimmed further at the end of August after some storm damage. The next major workday entailed planting the vegetables sourced from Pennings: zucchini, tomatoes, and hot and bell peppers. From there, volunteers focused on watering, weeding, and watching for pests. As the plants began to yield, harvesting became added to weekly upkeep, and the Pirovitz family took the lead on delivering donations to an emergency food program at The Alamo in Goshen. As the season winds down, work that remains includes ultimately putting the garden to bed and assessing repairs and maintenance needed for next season.  

Andrew Olesh