Hydroponics

Gail Wesala, a beloved member of our Maranatha community, spends much of her time volunteering running our hydroponics garden in the lower school. With her own kids now graduated from MCA, Gail enjoys giving back to the community in a way that she sees she’s making a difference. “I enjoy talking to the students and anybody that happens to walk by. I’ll teach them something or they’ll bring something to the table.”

Gail grows everything from cilantro to lemon basil in our hydroponics tower. The process of growing these plants is different from your average garden: these plants have no soil! The process of hydroponics involves growing plants with nutrient-filled water that replaces those very nutrients plants would otherwise get from soil. And because a hydroponics system can be so minutely regulated, Gail is able to grow plants for our community even in those cold winter, Minnesota months.

Gail’s contributions to Maranatha are astounding, and she loves volunteering her time even though she also works full time. One especially fun thing that Gail does is she teams up with lower school teachers to give students lessons on growing plants as she takes them through the process of watching the plants grow in the garden. The kids love to see the progress made, and they often celebrate with a party at the end with smoothies, salads, or you name it—all with produce grown right here at Maranatha.