I am sure that for many of you, spring has been a time for cleaning up what you left in your gardens over winter. In my case, my “leftovers” have included cayenne pepper plants inside cages, metal fence post tomato stakes, a pile of sticks gathered since the final 2025 yard waste pickup and some leaves that had blown into the beds.

Thank goodness Whitehall Township restarted the yard waste pickup in March. My first can went to the curb March 19. I tried to load it in such a way that the Mascaro workers wouldn’t get poked in the eye by the contents, yet I was able to get everything into one can.

Now that winter’s garden remnants have been properly disposed of, I have been observing how my yard has been greening up. It’s greening up to the point that parts of it really need to be cut.

Last month, I mentioned I adopted a new cat. Chester spends a lot of his day watching cat TV, which is observing birds, squirrels and street traffic from the sunroom out back and from the picture window in the front.

When I join him to see what he’s looking at, I see the tall grass in the yard and wonder if he notices the same. Will he be offended when this grass is cut down? By the time this article is published, I will have cut my grass and know the answer.

I have recently learned the Seed Farm’s three-year grant to fund the Growing Partners program has ended. Growing Partners provided seeds and seedlings to the community and pantry gardens. As a result, I am in the process of setting up an account and discount with Johnny’s Seeds, an organic seed company used by the Seed Farm.

If anyone reading this article is interested in starting some tomato, sweet pepper or eggplant seeds for us, or if you can provide us with any extra plants you may have at planting time, call or text me at 610-379-6823.

If anyone has available space in a commercial greenhouse we can use for seed starting, reach out. In the meantime, I will be using my sunroom to start sowing this year’s seeds.

While I get my own yard in order, I also need to address the pantry garden yard and beds. I haven’t visited yet this spring because I didn’t want to run the risk of embarrassingly getting my car stuck on the Mickley-Prydun Farm property.

Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Treasurer Allen Handwerk has graciously offered to rototill the garden using our large tiller. The county also gave us a grant for the garden in which we budgeted for a medium-sized rototiller that I would be able to use myself.

I am currently shopping for the tiller and look forward to being able to share the rototilling duties with Allen so we can get our first crop of potatoes into the ground later in April.

At our March pantry distributions, we were able to give out fresh fruit and vegetables including grapefruit, apples, onions, white potatoes and carrots. Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who downpacked many of these items so we could efficiently move our guests through their pantry shopping experience.

Also in March, each household was able to select one miscellaneous nonfood or toiletry item. These items included hand soap, shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, dish soap, zipper bags, masks and wipes. Most items had been gathered from community donations and were supplemented with items we have been able to source from Feed the Children.

These items were a great addition to all the food we were able to provide.

Remember, food donations, reusable shopping totes and paper bags with handles may be dropped 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays at the REMAX Unlimited office at 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall.

If you want your donation to be picked up, or if you prefer to drop your donation directly to the pantry, give me a call at 610-379-6823. Also, if you are curious about what the pantry looks like, how it operates or if you might be interested in volunteering, give me a call, and I will happily arrange a visit for you.

Have a great spring!

Editor’s note: This column was written by Gwen Herzog, pantry garden chair.