COEUR d'ALENE - What was once three overgrown vacant lots at the corner of 10th Avenue and Foster Street, is now a soon-to-be thriving series of terraced, raised garden beds and park benches under 100-year-old oak trees.

It's Shared Harvest Community Garden, and they're growing more than plants there.

Springing from the garden are relationships, knowledge and good will.

"It's just a great chance for our kids and all of us to connect and become a community," said Lisa Rake of Coeur d'Alene.

"The kids get to get dirty, and find carrots and zucchini. It's really enriched our neighborhood."

Rake's family members were among dozens of neighbors who showed up at the garden Sunday for the annual spring cleanup. They came bearing gloves, shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows.

Rake's son, Palmer, pulled up a rock near a tree and peeked beneath.

"I found a centipede," the 8-year-old shouted.

For many, it's a return to the garden.

It's Jason Taft's family's third season with a plot.

"It's fun. It's something for the kids," the Coeur d'Alene man said. "You see people here every day when you come to water your plot."

Sheryl Wytychak of Coeur d'Alene is also participating for her third year.

She said she keeps coming back because "It's a community experience, and it's beautiful."

The food-sharing component of the garden especially pleases Wytychak.

Gardeners commit to donate a portion of the food they grow in the plots they are assigned, and it is given to local food assistance programs - shelters, food banks and soup kitchens.

In the past, Wytychak has helped deliver the items, with other volunteers, by bicycle.

"It's nice to be a part of something bigger than myself," Wytychak said.

They also collect and distribute produce from local growers beyond the community garden.

Since the program began, 29,000 pounds of fresh-grown food has been given out.

"We don't regulate how much they donate," said garden director Kim Normand. "It's just the act of giving back, and it's all kinds of people who do - young, old, wealthy, poor."

Some people need the food they grow as much as the people at the 15 different food service programs the group donates to, but those people give also because they want to be part of the "giving garden," Normand said. The garden's 60 plots are leased by individuals and groups each season. They are always full, and there is an additional community garden plot that everyone shares in the tending of.

Along the garden's 10th Street border, there is a xeriscape garden. Designed for dry survival, xeriscape plants support wise water usage.

"We're really promoting that this year, showing people how to grow drought-tolerant plants," Normand said.

This year, bocce ball tournaments are planned for the garden, adding another element to the growing and giving.

The group holds one fundraiser each year, a "Dinner Under the Stars" in August.

Information: www.facebook.com/communityrootscda