MARS — The Rev. Katie McNeal, pastor at St. John Lutheran Church on Beaver Street, tends to her flock with love and compassion.

And now she does the same with the community garden she planted in the church’s backyard.

“Last year was a bit of an experiment to see if this could grow,” McNeal said of the garden where the borough’s needy can get free vegetables and herbs.

This year, McNeal doubled the size of the garden plot beside the parking lot to 8 feet by 24 feet.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, squash, various peppers, eggplant and 10 different herbs reach for the sun behind the chicken-wire fence that keeps out the hungry rabbits in the neighborhood.

“It all started when I moved to town and was renting, and I was bemoaning (the fact that) I didn’t have a garden,” McNeal said. “The lovely folks here said ‘We’ll put one here.’”

MARS — The Rev. Katie McNeal, pastor at St. John Lutheran Church on Beaver Street, tends to her flock with love and compassion.

And now she does the same with the community garden she planted in the church’s backyard.

“Last year was a bit of an experiment to see if this could grow,” McNeal said of the garden where the borough’s needy can get free vegetables and herbs.

This year, McNeal doubled the size of the garden plot beside the parking lot to 8 feet by 24 feet.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, squash, various peppers, eggplant and 10 different herbs reach for the sun behind the chicken-wire fence that keeps out the hungry rabbits in the neighborhood.

“It all started when I moved to town and was renting, and I was bemoaning (the fact that) I didn’t have a garden,” McNeal said. “The lovely folks here said ‘We’ll put one here.’”

The harvest from last year’s small, experimental garden was a hit.

“We gave the produce to the regulars at our little food pantry and saw how much it was appreciated,” McNeal said.

The energetic pastor carefully thought out every aspect of the community garden project with sustainability in mind.

McNeal started all the plants in her home from seed, using grow lights and warming mats to get them started.

Even the tiny containers in which the seeds were planted were biodegradable peat pots or plastic seed pots she has used over and over.

The garden floor is made of compost and most herbs are in large flower pots made from recycled plastic plucked from the ocean.

Dave Knauff, of Mars, was baptized at St. John Lutheran and has never belonged to another church.

An avid, lifelong gardener, Knauff was 100% behind McNeal’s idea to plant a garden that would provide produce to those in the borough who are food insecure.

Knauff not only started some tomato plants for the garden from seed, but he installed the rain barrel that allows McNeal to water the garden during dry spells.

“It’s better for the plants than treated water,” McNeal said. “It’s just God-given rain.”

Knauff thinks the garden is yet another positive facet of the energetic young pastor’s enthusiastic ministry at St. John Lutheran.

“I think she is doing a fantastic job. This is her first calling and she is a breath of fresh air,” he said. “Her enthusiasm is amazing. I think it’s going to lead to a revival for our church.“

He hopes the garden expands down the strip of land beside the church parking lot in the coming years so fresh produce can be added to the food pantry.

“Almost all the food that goes into (the pantry) is processed,“ Knauff said. ”What could be better than fresh produce?“

McNeal also used “companion planting” when deciding where to locate various vegetables and flowers — the latter of which are all native to Pennsylvania.

In companion planting, certain plants are placed near one another to deter common pests.

McNeal intentionally planted rosemary near the eggplant, and the tomatoes were paired with basil and marigolds.

“It’s really hard to keep it organized,” she said.

Eggshells scattered at the base of the young tomato plants are meant to provide calcium and ward off slugs, McNeal said.

She covered last year’s garden with straw at the end of the growing season to promote beneficial insects in the soil, and was delighted when she removed it this spring to find the oregano had overwintered and was growing in the garden.

“I just built the garden around it,” she said.

All 10 herbs in the garden and in pots at the entrance have been trimmed once already.

“If you trim back herbs, they grow back bushier,” McNeal said.

Pollinators also were on the pastor’s mind as she planned the community garden, so she planted local perennial and annual flowers for bees to feed on.

“I like to have more of those as opposed to flowers that are not native to the area,” McNeal said.

She also made placards for each vegetable and herb to instruct those preparing to harvest the produce on the proper way to do so, and included the size each vegetable should be before it is removed from the plant.

McNeal said church leaders want to get more congregants involved in the garden through weeding, watering and harvesting items to be placed in the church’s small food pantry, and other tasks.

“The folks here have big dreams,” she said.

For McNeal’s part, building and tending to the garden is therapeutic for her, and even reaches the level of a personal ministry.

“I personally connect really well with God’s creation by getting my hands in the dirt,” she said. “I’d love it to be a learning venue, not only for gardening, but on how our faith plays into what we do.”

She also hopes the garden will expand each summer.

“Every year, we look to do a little better than we did before,” McNeal said. “That’s life, right?”