Allison Pressimone and Allie George, students from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, are only in town for a few days but Joseph Brock is making sure they get their hands dirty.

The volunteers, part of a dozen on a service trip to New Orleans through HandsOn, are tilling soil and setting up tomato supports on the raised beds at the Wise Words Community Garden. Other volunteers are busy planting herbs and spreading fertilizer.

“If you build it, they will come,” says Brock, the Mid-City Community Garden executive director.

He broke ground on the lots at 724 S. Hennessey St. in November 2009. “Right now I’m in construction mode,” he says. “That’s the hardest part.”

  The garden is designed for both food and art; Brock wants the garden to resemble an outdoor gallery, with works on display along the fences and in the soil beds. As the name implies, words of inspiration will line each bed and brick. The garden also will celebrate the art of food, with local chefs preparing dishes using ingredients from the garden during weekly cooking demonstrations. Brock already has caught the attention of neighborhood joints Huevos and Crescent City Pie and Sausage, the Ruby Slipper Cafe, Liberty’s Kitchen and Parkway Bakery and Tavern.

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