Friendship Garden Video Production

Early this season, Friendship Gardens was kind enough to create a video for most of the 35 gardens within the collaboration.  Here's a link to ours: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ntyJheJKgg

Urban Gardens and Farms

Community Gardens

Here is an article that recently posted on Plan Charlotte's web page. The author:  Amber Veverka.  SPCC Almost Organic Garden got press!

http://plancharlotte.org/story/local-foods-charlotte-urban-farms-low-income-elderly-access

SPCC Garden Security Division

Ready for duty once again

We noticed how badly Mr. Scare E. Crow’s shirt had been bleached by the sun, and how much weight he had lost during his diligent watch over our garden. So, Bonnie took him home, cleaned him up, put a little weight on him, and got him a fresh change of clothes. Soon, he’ll go back on duty, and we’ll see him watching over our investments again. By the way, Mr. Crow is the short one...oh dear!

Growing Our Own Food





Home Sweet Home

I was born a city-slicker, and I happened to get interested in vegetable gardening kind of late in life.  I had a neighbor (Mr. Price) who was an old-timer, had a little plot of dirt, lived in a little old house, and refused to let the sprawl of the city take over his home of about 50 years.  In fact, there were apartments and condos on either side of his property--lots of traffic and lots of concrete.  Before the city limits moved out past him, he described our neighborhood as once being “way out in the country”.  His garden was about the size of SPCC’s Almost Organic Garden, and he could make anything grow in it.  He wore faded overalls every day, and kept a red bandana in his back pocket.  His hands were big and strong.  His skin was leathery.  His facial features were hard with deep lines of expression, especially around his eyes.  But he seemed to always have a little sparkle in them.  You couldn’t meet him without noticing the tell-tale signs in his face of his having worked outdoors most of his life.  


Mean, Mean Machine

I’ll never forget his old antique, one-man plow.  No matter how hard I tried to hold on to it, that thing would jerk me all around his garden and the furrows I tried to make with it were as wavy as a winding road.  I was about age 40, and he was about my age now--70.  He had arms on him as big as my legs, and he could handle that plow like there was nothing to it.  He was a fine old fellow; a real gentleman and he seemed to enjoy watching me learn (the hard way) how to grow my own food.  He helped me get my townhouse association community garden started, and he didn’t let us fail at “turning good dirt into good food”, as he would say.   I could have learned much more under his guidance, had we had the time, but he died after my second year of community gardening, and I’ll forever be grateful to him for teaching me about growing good things to eat and giving me a glimpse into that part of his life where vegetable gardening was a necessity and not a hobby. 

I only had the benefit of his tutelage (and friendship) for about 2 years, but he taught me enough about it, that I became able to do it on my own.  There’s something quite gratifying about making a pretty garden, and I often think of Mr. Price whenever I step back and admire ours.  I sure do wish he had been around a couple of weeks ago--before our church rabbits snuck in past us.  He would have seen it coming, and would have steered me away from that trouble long before the rabbits gained access to our pole beans, if he had been there. 

The hard work of our garden subscriber families has surely paid off, too.  We’ve suffered an occasional setback, but barring any future disasters, we should soon be harvesting some good vegetables.   I know we’ll be so proud to supply vegetables not only to our own tables, but also to share our bounty with others--folks who don’t always have good food on their tables, and some who aren’t even able to eat regularly.  It strikes me as quite unusual that smack dab in the middle of one of Charlotte’s most hooty-tooty neighborhoods, South Park, our installation of a common ol’ vegetable garden doesn’t seem to offend any of our neighbors.  In fact, word has it that some of our neighbors are thrilled with it, and track our progress regularly with little evening walks down to our backyard to observe how well we’re doing. 



Digging Deeper Seed Planting

We can all be very proud of our accomplishments.  Our fellowship, alone, has made the entire project worthwhile to me, and I look forward to the continuing rewards that are sure to come.  I hope everyone has had fun with this project.  I sure have, and I’ve learned even more garden tricks since we began.  Just think…it all started back in January, when our kids agreed to plant seeds and to take them home to keep warm and nurture until we could transplant them in the spring.  Now, with a productive garden, a spruced up the garden shed, some hard labor and lots of sunshine, we now have a full-fledged agricultural marvel right in our own back yard.  I think Mr. Price would approve.

Wascally Wabbits!

We are under attack!  While our backs were turned, the backyard bunnies launched an unprecedented attack on our pole beans, and pretty much wiped them out completely!  How did they get inside the fence?  They chewed three holes in it (so far).  They seem to like eating the runners off of each plant—you know…the ones that climb up the poles.  I must say they’ve won this round, but we’ve got a plan of action that should allow us to have pole beans this summer, after all.  The second planting of beans might be harvested a little later than we originally planned, but harvested they will be!

There’s a special fencing made to keep out rabbits that is made out of wire.  It is sold at Lowe’s, and it is made for just such a problem.  I’d like to see those wascally wabbits chew through that!  We’ll soon have it stretched all the way around our garden perimeter.  We’ll sprinkle blood meal around our peas and beans (bunnies hate blood meal), and we’ve found a special bunny repellant spray that, if not effective, the supplier will give us our money back.

I’m proud to announce that tonight the Disciples Men voted to make a sizeable donation to our garden project that will defray the cost of remedying our rabbit problem.  Thanks DM!  We’ll put it to good use.

We have only 20 more tomato stakes to put in place, and almost all the tomato plants have been tied up.  Have you seen the pretty little tomatoes growing on them already?  Our plants are very healthy indeed.

We have plans to till under the first crop of buckwheat tomorrow (Monday).  That should improve our soil for a second planting of tomatoes, squash and cucumbers later this summer.  I’m anxious to see how well this first planting improves the dirt.  We’ll sow another crop of buckwheat right away in hopes of improving the soil even more.  There should be plenty of time between now and when we must have those rows ready for transplanting second crops.

Now that all our plants have been put in and the trellises built, we’re moving from the planning and building phase into the maintenance phase of our garden project.  We’ve stayed on top of weeding and watering and fertilizing, so there isn’t enough maintenance left to justify a full-fledged workday next Saturday.   For that reason, we would like to do some watering demonstrations.  So far, there are only a few of us who water regularly, and it will become a big hardship in the hot summer months, without more volunteers.  Watering, however, isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Managing 200 feet of hose without knocking down all our fragile plants takes some care and planning.  In fact, it’s a two-man job.  For this reason, we’ll schedule some training.  Please plan to attend Saturday morning around 9:30 AM if you’re willing to be available this summer to help out.  Once we see how many watering volunteers we can recruit, we’ll come up with a duty roster and waterers’ schedule to make it as fair and easy as possible.

It is also time to discuss harvest and distribution and to answer questions like what day of the week will vegetables be available to subscribers?...How often will they be collected and distributed?...Where will the pickup point be located?  In other words, we need to discuss and come up with a system that works for everyone.

I can’t wait until we move into the harvesting phase of our project.  Except for the beans, we’re fairly close to being on schedule.  I’m really looking forward to one of those soggy, home-grown,  tomato sandwiches.  I’m shooting for 4^th of July as a target date for our first tomatoes. 

Charlotte's Community Gardens

No Workday scheduled for Saturday, May 19th

A couple of us plan to meet at the garden this Saturday, to do some special chores (tilling under the buckwheat and planting Crowder peas), but it won't take a lot of labor, so we're not going to schedule a regular workday this Saturday, May 19th. 

The following Saturday, May 26th, we'll want to do some weeding,  and we'll soon have a watering seminar for those who may want to be on the watering brigade.  We'll talk more about that later. 

Look forward to seeing you all Saturday after next.

Here's a link to a Friendship Garden's post on Youtube that tells the story about what's happening with community gardens all over Charlotte.


Click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K4TXv8CE0Q&feature=youtu.be

Clean Up Day

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds!

We really cleaned up!!  In fact, all of the rows in our garden have been weeded.  I think everyone grabbed a rake or a hoe and got-r-done today!  It's nice to be caught up and back on our garden schedule.  We still have crowder peas to plant, but there's plenty of time for that.

Ever thought dirt could be pretty?

Jerry noticed fewer rocks this time.

All the rows for second plantings have been amended with that great-looking black gold compost that Greg has been bringing to us.   Jim and Paula Staudt made short work of that chore.   The dirt looks like it would grow just about any vegetable.



I don't think the Weather Man is going to let us get the buckwheat turned under with a tiller anytime soon. There's a good chance of rain on Sunday afternoon and Monday, so we'll have to wait for the dirt to dry again. I never thought I'd complain about rainy days in a garden.  I guess I just need to have more patience.



Pete, is that a fence or a cage?

Many of our tomato plants already have stakes in place and are ready to be tied up...thanks to Robert's handy work, his big hammer and his battery powered saw. 

Remember how confident I was when I said the fence was secured to the ground well enough to keep out the deer and the bunnies?  Well, I need to re-think the part about the bunnies.  We noticed that several of our new pole bean sprouts have been chewed up pretty badly by our furry little neighbors.  We'll keep piling up rocks against the bottom of the fence.  Maybe we can eventually prevent them from scooting under the fabric.  Bunnies gotta eat too, I guess, and seeds are cheap.

Our garden just might be living proof that rocks can grow vegetables.  Seriously, our soil is getting better and better. 

Someone said that it looks like we now have a real garden.  Well, we do!

Rain, Rain. We need it!

 

Well, it remains to be seen if this Saturday, May12th, will be another scheduled workday.  We got some much-needed rain today, and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow (Wednesday).  If it rains hard, it might make the garden too wet to work on Saturday.  Little weeds are starting to grow along our expertly crafted rows of veggies, and it's time to turn under the first crop of buckwheat in the tomato garden.  It would be nice if we could get in there and take care of these things before they get away from us. 

I'll send an email to the group by Friday evening to see if anyone wants to play in the dirt on Saturday.  We shouldn't need a lot of gardeners, and it shouldn't be back-breaking work this time.  We just need to tidy up and keep everything beautiful...if it's dry enough, that is.

Rob Suydam and I replaced some pepper plants that didn't make it; planted some pole bean seeds where the original ones didn't come up, and transplanted about 20 new basil plants last weekend.  We amended the soil on the new crowder pea row, and got it ready to put seeds in the ground in the next couple of weeks.  I knew we would eventually find that row.

There are now some heavy-duty ground pins securing the deer fence fabric to the ground, all the way around our garden.  I think we've cut off any access to the family of bunnies that live on the grounds, and I haven't seen any signs of the deer that also live back there.

Have a good week everybody.  Let me know early, if you want to hoe and weed this Saturday.  Otherwise I'll send an email to the entire group letting you know if the workday is on or off.  Oh, if we do schedule it, please bring a hoe with you if you have one.

April's Last Workday

Finishing up, Saturday, April 28th

April's Last Workday

Mary Katherine tightening up

We had a great turnout on Saturday, and we almost finished planting everything on the list.  All the construction was completed.  Poles for pole beans are all strung and tightened up, and seeds planted. 

We sowed Swiss chard, radishes and arugula in the same row--all from seed.  Eggplants were set out in a row by themselves, and a dozen more tomato plants were planted, completing the tomato garden for our first crop. 

The only veggie remaining to be planted this spring is crowder peas....not because we ran out of time, but because we ran out of rows.   We actually lost a row! When we started to sow the seeds for the crowder peas, there were no rows left!  I think somebody miscalculated the layout, using that fancy garden planner software.  No pointing fingers, folks!!

Garden Beautification

Ed's sister, Diane, a seasoned gardner who was visiting from Winston Salem, came with the rest of the Gagnon family, and she, Alicia and Emma finished preparing the dirt for our little corner flower garden.  It has a snazzy rock border, and they sowed zinnia and marigold seeds and some marigold plants.  Diane is welcome to come back anytime to  help out in our garden.  Thanks, Diane!  The flowers are beautiful.  Bring on the bees!  

SPCC Garden Security Division

Ann Fields and Jen Sulivan welcomed the newest member of SPCC's Almost Organic Garden.  Mr. Scare E. Crow unceremoniously took his post and immediately began keeping away unwanted critters.  No one saw a single crow or deer after he went on duty.  Actually I don't remember seeing any elephants, lions or tigers either.  He's doing a great job. 

We have completed so much of our garden schedule, and everyone has been so willing to contribute to the hard work of making it, that we do not need to schedule a workday on Saturday, May 5th. 

We still have to pin the bottom of the fence fabric to the ground so bunnies can't get in.  I'll probably come in next Saturday and finish that, but it's kind of a one-man job.   We can start staking tomatoes the following Saturday (5/12).

The Dirty Dozen (yeah, I know...I can't count but it sounded so good!)

Thanks again to everybody for all your hard work!

Labor of Love

While We Wait for our dirt to dry:

I just thought you all would be pleased to see some pictures of Henry Graham's beautiful vegetable garden.  Those of us with a good amount of garden experience know full well how much work and how many years it takes to achieve a garden with good, workable dirt, functional construction like Henry's nicely built walkway and fencing, and a reliable layout that works well year after year.  Those of us who are just getting started with vegetable gardening have learned a lot about it too.  Especially with our first year of development at SPCC's Friendship Garden. 

Our dirt needs a lot of work.  It has an abundance of clay that makes it clump easily...and we have lots of clumps.  We'll just be patient and add plenty of soil amenities as we go.  BJ Simmons suggests after our garden is spent for the summer that plowing before winter, and having a good freeze or two with the dirt exposed to the cold air will go a long way to break up the clumps.  Imagine having dirt that is so workable that one of these commercial wheel hoes is all that is needed to make up consistent, straight planting rows...

Henry's garden dirt is so good, he can achieve the same results with a simple shovel and wheelbarrow contraption that he came up with.  Take a look at the raised rows he was able to make with it.  He tells me he is still working on the design, and that to work properly, the dirt has to be very dry.

It takes a lot of work and patience, but I feel that with the enthusiasm that our group has shown so far, we'll get there, and maybe with some luck thrown in, we'll have a pretty garden like Henry's one day.

I especially like the picture of the zinnias displayed in the foreground against the backdrop of okra.  Nice work, Henry!

Thanks for sharing.

Smaller Turnout - April 21st

Smaller turnout, but a very productive Saturday

Thanks to the few who turned out today, we now have squash in the ground, and we need only 10 more tomato plants to fill up the tomato section of our garden.  Henry Graham gave us a whole flat of tomato plants.

Jerry keeping 'em straight.

Jerry came in early this morning and took on the task of scratcing in some organic fertilizer around the cucumbers and bell peppers, then he took over from Stephanie, Lizzy and Ellie Adelman who had lots of other Saturday commitments for the day.  They planted some of Henry's tomatoes before they had to leave.  Jerry finished the rest.  It was about 30 tomato plants with 5 or 6 different varieties.  Thanks Henry!  The last row of tomatoes is almost filled, and the buckwheat has started to show itself.

We didn't expect the buckwheat to come up very thick on the first planting.  It's a little more sparse than I had hoped, however.  It always improves with each successive planting because it adds nitrogen to the soil and produces better and better dirt for all vegetables to grow in.

Ray and Ann helping it grow.

Where's that other worker bee?

Ray and Ann planted two full rows of crook neck squash seeds, then moved up to the tomato garden and applied organic fertilizer to all of those plants (about 70 in all).

I have been constructing the poles for our pole beans, and I've got one more row to stretch horizontally.   Then we'll run twine up and down for the beans to actually climb.

 The last chore today was watering all the plants and seeds, cleaning up the tools and putting the hose away.  I'm proud to say we are very much on schedule with one more April workday planned for next weekend.  We now have the following plants or seeds in the ground:

• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• peppers
• squash
• buckwheat

The following should be going in on (or just before) May 1st: 

• eggplant
• green beans
• crowder peas 
• Swiss chard 
• basil 

Next weekend I hope the younger folks with the strong backs show up again...stronger than mine anyway.  There are two rows that still need raking up, and one that just needs to be finished.  We still have lots of rocks and clumps that should be cleared out of the isles between the rows and taken to the woods.  If these tasks are finished by this coming Saturday, we will have finished all the hard work of building the garden.  We'll put in a bee-attracting flower garden, put Mr. Scare E. Crow in place, and the balance of the work will be simply maintaining it (until mid summer when we plant our second crop of tomatoes, squash and cucumbers).

Thanks for the hard work, everybody.  The garden is looking so good!

Culinary Arts Graduation

Culinary Arts School

Friendship Trays - Class #42 Graduation Videos

Not sure if you know how far-reaching Friendship Trays/Gardens is, but here's some video of their most recent graduation ceremony for their Culinary Arts Class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIoNA-0yvKI&feature=player_embedded

I asked what was involved in enrolling in their Food Prep/Knife Skills Class, and the answer was "come on".  The payment for the class would be volunteering for 6 months in the Friendship Trays Kitchen, prepearing the over 750 meals a day we've heard so much about. 

These folks were either unemployed or under-employed before they took this training.  Just think how much they'll give back and how portable their new skills are...for the rest of their lives, if they want.

Starting the Garden

Big Turnout on First Workday

Saturday, April 14th

I hardly know where to begin with this post.  We had a big turnout, and we accomplished much more than I ever thought we would on our first official workday last Saturday.  About 9:30 a.m. everyone started arriving with rakes and shovels in-hand; all kinds of hats and sunglasses and tubes of sun block, ready to start working.  I didn’t take an official count, but there were well over 20 people there (including the kids).  It was a beautiful day, and so the raking began.  

We had so much work to do, just managing rocks and clumps of dirt and shaping our rows, I never believed we would get far enough to put the first plant in the ground—but we did!  In fact, we planted all 40 tomato plants, all 25 cucumber plants and all 25 sweet pepper plants.  We even sowed 3 or 4 rows with buckwheat (a natural soil amenity) to prepare them for a second crop of tomatoes in July/August.  By the end of the day, almost all rows were shaped and ready for planting or at least ready for adding compost.  There are only a couple more rows left to make next Saturday, and one or two that need to be finished.  It actually looks like a garden now!

We found out that Paula Staudt is a Master Gardner, so we put her and Jim on the planting detail.  She knew just how deep to plant, how far apart they should be, and how to keep the rows straight as a string.  It’s a much prettier garden when everything is straight and symmetrical.

Jim Cowick kept the compost coming, and he stayed just ahead of Paula and Jim with a steady supply, ready for them to blend it in with the dirt and do their planting.

 

Our dirt has so many rocks in it that we solicited Alicia and her helpers, Carol Cowick and Lizzie and Ellie Adelman to collect them and to create a border for a bee-attracting flower bed.  A little dirt added to the area, and soon we will have some colorful flowers in one corner of our beautiful garden.  All the kids were amazing!  Covert hung in there raking rows and aligning them with his Dad.  Kali and Emma worked wherever they were needed, and Michael took charge of the wheelbarrow.

Jerry Whitt raked and raked. There were so many rocks at the entrance to the garden, and he made countless trips to dispose of them down in the woods.  I lost count of how many boxes he toted down there after about a dozen or so. 

On Friday morning Joe Sing, our part time gardener from Hyaets came to till the dirt for us, and he did a great job.  Even after having already been plowed once and tilled twice, the dirt was still very hard-packed.  He got over half of the garden done before Robert Suydam came in and picked up where he left off.   It was tilled a total of four times.  Late in the afternoon on Friday, just as Robert was tilling the next-to-last row, the tiller hit a big rock or maybe it was an old concrete foundation.  It was something very big and very immovable.  One tine broke off the rented tiller, and another was bent badly enough that it hit against the tiller housing every time it rotated.  Well, the damage was so bad that the job couldn’t be finished.  We returned a broken tiller to Home Depot Tool Rental.  Fortunately, our rental contract contained insurance just for such an eventuality, and we didn’t have to pay any extra for the damage.

 

Our gardeners worked so hard, and everyone deserves a lot of gratitude.  I’m afraid I’ll leave someone out, if I try to mention everyone.  I know there were some sore backs in church on Sunday morning.  But you should have seen the smiles on everyone’s faces when they left the garden on Saturday afternoon.  There was even some attaboys (and girls) shoulder-patting that went around...and around…and around.  We have some hard-working garden subscribers at SPCC. 

Thanks for coming out and making it all happen, everyone.  It looks like we’re going to have a terrific friendship garden.

I’d like to mention too, that we have some very accomplished and experienced gardeners at SPCC who are not members of our group.  They have been very helpful and have made themselves available with answers and advice whenever it was asked for.  Thanks Henry Graham and BJ Simmons.

 

 

 

 

Lost and Found:

• A soft brown sweater
• A nice stainless steel coffee cup

...were left at the garden on Saturday.  They are inside our garden shed waiting to be reclaimed.

Schedule for Saturday, April 21st:

• Two more rows to be raked up
• Compost added to the mix
• Planting about 60 more tomato plants
• Sowing Swiss chard seeds
• Sowing squash seeds
• Sowing green beans and finishing up the pole framework
• And…of course watering new seeds and plants
• Pinning the bottom of the fence fabric to the ground

Gone Fishin'

Gone Fishin'

As of noon on Monday, Gwen and I are headed to the beach.  The garden will be in my thoughts and prayers the whole time I'm gone, whether I'm relaxing on the beach, eating fresh seafood or just sunning.  Might have to do some shopping too, 'cause we're only taking one car.

This weekend's Workday (April 14th) should bring us back up-to-snuff as far as our garden development is concerned.  We'll be back on Thursday afternoon, and I'll pick up where you guys left off.  Thanks for everyone's help.  Y'all are the greatest!

See you this weekend.                                        

Dick





Workday

Saturday, April 14th

We're going to try again.

There's probably going to be a crusty top on our soil by Saturday, so I'm trying to get it tilled again so it will be a little more fluffy when we rake.  Hopefully it will be tilled again on Wednesday or Thursday and we can pick up where we left off.  The weather forcast looks good every day this week, so the garden should be good and dry.  I know you're anxious to see plants growing in our garden, and I hope lots of you will be able to bring your grass rakes and help rake this Saturday.  I'll be there early with garden plan in-hand, ready to lay out all the rows, so come early if you want to get an early start.  We may even stick a plant or two in the ground.

 

Big Disappointment!

Too Wet to Plow

The rain was pretty heavy last night, and our garden is soaked.  We have to postpone our work day that was scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday, 4/7).  We were hoping we would have all the rows raked up and in place for planting by April 14th, but we'll just have to consider ourselves a little behind schedule.  The dirt may be dry enough to rake by Wednesday or Thursday of this week, and if anyone wants to meet on one of those days to help get caught up a little, let me know.  There's a final plan for the garden layout, and I'll bring it along and meet you there on either of those days, otherwise we'll just do it on the next Saturday (4/14).

Here's the link to the garden plan:  http://www.growveg.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=219296

Have a wonderful Easter, and a fun weekend.

Update

Weekend Plan ...

This coming Saturday (April 7th) we'll need as many subscribers to help out with making rows in our garden as we can get.  Yes, this is the one where you'll need to bring those grass rakes with you, if you have them.  We'll stretch a string in a nice straight line to to help guide the direction and symmetry of the rows.  It's going to be a pretty veggie garden! 

I plant to get there early in the cool of the morning.  We'll have an orderly plan of attack for this weekend's project.  Hope to see you there.

Thanks,

Dick

Oh, here's a recently produced video by Friendship Trays that I hope you'll find inspiring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0c0KyAynOnc

Our First Garden Work Day Schedule
March - April, 2012

Work begins at 9:00 AM
but call Dick (704 807-1148) if you must begin later.

Thursday, Mar 29     Apply Lime to Garden
  
Friday, Mar 30          Henry Owen to till garden
                                      Mix in Compost
                                      Rake at least one raised row for lettuce

Saturday, Mar 31     Erect Deer Fence

Saturday, Apr 7        Rake and shape raised rows

Saturday, Apr 14      Transplant seedlings

Saturday, Apr 21      Plant from seeds

Saturday, Apr 28      Finish up all April tasks.

We Got Dirt!
It won't be too much longer and we'll be planting here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkRboA6xmNE&context=C43884daADvjVQa1PpcFNlxI5lYtf2aA_QSfuxVWNXu3ErqNZ1t_U=

Garden Plan and Plant List

Here's the latest plan of our garden.  We'll be pretty busy setting out all those plants in April. 

http://plans.garden-planner.net/uploads/plans/219296.jpg

Compost -

Providing The Most Beneficial Soil Nutriants For Our Garden

Bonnie has been doing a great job of composting.  One of our piles already has several layers of green and brown.  She's been watering and turning.  At this rate, we'll have a bunch of that "black gold" to make our veggies grow big and healthy sooner than we thought.  She has contributed books and handouts that explain how to do it, and how vegetable plants benefit from using it. 

Thanks everyone for bringing in your kitchen waste.  We must have received 15 or 16 lbs. of egg shells, coffee grinds and leafy kitchen waste last Sunday.  If you want to contribute from your kitchen, simply save it in  bags or seal-top, plastic containers  and take them to one of the benches in the back yard.  Bonnie will keep it together until it's time for another layer.  Thanks for this information, Bonnie:

Also, she asked that we remove the strings and tags from the tea bags and please leave out sticks and twigs from any leaves you bring.  They would eventually break down, but at a much slower rate.

Henry Owen, Program Director, giving us the benefit of his practice presentation about Friendship Gardens. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MY-7_GDk3KQ&noredirect=1

Here is some dialogue that may be of interest to everyone at church, regarding our forthcoming water usage and expense:

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 9:16 PM, Beth Ann Robinson <badland1@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Thanks again for all of your efforts on this project!!! I really think it will prove worthwhile for years into the future.

Is there anything we can do to collect the water coming off of the roof? I don't think we have downspouts, but I'm sure there are some other creative ways to harness that valuable resource. I hope we can consider any options. Thanks.

 

Hi Beth,

 

I haven't figured out  how we can capture all that water.   I would love it if someone would take this rain water project and run with it. I have found a source of plastic, food-grade barrels in York, South Carolina, where they're sold for about $40.00 each. However, I've looked at the downspouts around our building, and their design presents a problem.   They end very low to the ground and were installed behind the stucco, inside the walls, where we can't easily get to them.   There is one pipe sticking out of the brick wall under Tara's office window that might be used somehow.   The slope of the land drops off sharply toward the garden right under it, and it might be possible to bury a barrel or a succession of them down the hill to catch the water coming out of that pipe. (Actually I haven't confirmed yet that it is, in fact, a downspout.)  The roof above it has no gutters, so I'm not sure where the pipe comes from.   It might be running under the foundation a long way from the flat part of the roof, over the office hall, or classrooms.

I guess this first year will be a sort of a "proving ground" to see if we want to continue this project annually.   I am encouraged so far, by the participation, interest and expertise that has been shown by everyone, and I hope it will become a regular event for us.   I hesitate to do any permanent alteration to the landscape without going through the PAC, Property, Board, general membership (or whichever is appropriate) approval process, until we know the garden will be an annual project.  Let's do some brainstorming and kick some ideas around.

We want to make sure that the cost of such a water-capturing contraption is not so expensive that it substantially reduces any benefit.   Any ideas you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick