On a small lot nestled between two houses in the 1200 block of East Avenue, preparations are underway to bring new life from the soil.

Master gardeners, volunteers, AmeriCorps workers and participants in Vicksburg’s first time homebuyers program are digging, plowing and preparing beds for a community garden to grow vegetables and decorative plants. Workers were working on the lot Sunday clearing the lot and installing the landscape timbers to form planting beds.

“We started in March,” city housing coordinator Angela Turner said. “This lot was donated to us by Charlotte Gholson.

We’re building it to teach the people in our first time homebuyers program how to grow fruits and vegetables and flowers so they will be able to grow food for their tables and plants to landscape their yards at no cost to them.”

Master gardener Yolanda Horne, who oversees the garden, said it is designed to help people get started with their own gardens, adding they can get help designing their gardens and with selecting plants to grow in them.

“We will have plants available to give to them so they can start,” she said. “We will also have elevated beds on tables so senior citizens and mobility challenged people will be able to plant.”

She said the discovery of a paved walkway around the perimeter of the lot was a surprise.

Jenna Albert, an AmeriCorps team leader, said the master gardeners discovered the walkway when they started the garden.

“They were trying to expand the garden over there,” she said, pointing to the west side of the lot, “and they kept hitting concrete.” Albert said the steps leading to the lot from the street and about 5 feet of the paved landing were visible. The rest was covered with grass.

“We’ve been clearing the rest of it,” she said, pointing to a group of AmeriCorps workers scraping surface soil and grass to get to the paved path, which extends to the rear of the site.

While one group of workers cleared the path, other workers and volunteers tended already plowed tracts or prepared to install new beds.

Charlotte Sansucci, a resident of the Aeolian Apartments, was one of the volunteers clearing debris from around the plants.

“Yolanda got me to come,” she said. “I love to garden, but I can’t have a garden in my home, so I enjoy coming out here and working.”

Turner said the vegetables grown in the garden would be available to senior citizens and the 120 participants of the first time homebuyers program. She said anyone interested in planting a garden could visit the site twice a week to get tips on making it successful.

“People can come here every Tuesday and Thursday between 8:30 and 10:30 (a.m.) and learn how to grow vegetables and plants.”