Harvest time is coming up later this summer at Leppek’s Nursery and Garden Center in Genoa Township, but what they’re going to gather come picking time won’t be flowers.

Just starting to pop up out of the ground now is what will eventually be fresh vegetables for consumption by folks in the area who need a helping hand.

What is a place that sells things such as flowering plants, bushes and tree saplings doing growing vegetables? According to Leppek Floral Manager Char Rowe, the business is allowing use of a portion of its Grand River Avenue property to a new Gleaners Community Food Bank program. The result is the Leppek’s Community Garden, which is a pilot project this year.

Gleaners Livingston County Manager of Operations Erica Karfonta says the agency has wanted to do a community garden before, but until Rowe approached offering to help, lacked the mechanism.

“Leppek’s approached us and said we want to give back to the community and support Gleaners,” Karfonta explains.

The result is two, 10-by-20-foot gardens, where Leppek staff members have planted corn, pole beans, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes.

“I’m really pleased,” Karfonta says of the pilot program. “I think we’re looking at a whole new door opening in the mission of Gleaners (in Livingston County).”

“I went to (Gleaners) because I understand there’s a definite need,” Rowe says. In addition to the garden at the nursery, Leppek’s and Gleaners are encouraging area residents who have vegetable gardens to plant an extra row and donate the results to Gleaners.

Sarah Austin, who has a small backyard garden at her Howell home, wanted to help and will donate some of her tomatoes when they ripen. “I planted five plants and can’t eat that many tomatoes,” she says.

Karfonta says even people who don’t have a vegetable garden, or who live in an apartment, can help the program by getting a large pot, filling it with topsoil and fertilizer and planting a “salad” garden. Leppek’s is handing out fliers to its customers – a kind of vegetable garden “wish list” – outlining recipients’ food needs for people willing to donate.