Springtime Events

Hi all! There is much going on now that the frost date has passed, so I need to fill you all in on some upcoming dates for our 2012 community garden season. EVERY THURSDAY we will be meeting weekly at Jardin Maravilloso to work on clean up, planting and development of new garden features. There is much to do, not only to get our garden spruced up for spring, but also to prepare for upcoming arrivals of a shed, picnic tables, benches, etc. that will be joining our garden this season! A huge thank you to Palmetto Pride and Healthy Greenwood Neighborhoods for grant funding for 2012! You'll be seeing lots of changes as a result, so we hope you'll come check out what's going on and get your hands dirty. And please don't forget, the entire family is always welcome at our community garden.
Here is a list of dates, times, and details for the upcoming month:

Thursday April 19 and 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 from 4- 8p.m.: Informal garden work night and some planting! Feel free to drop in for as long as you are able anytime between 4p-8p.  If you are able, please bring handtools, kneeling pads, buckets, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows or weedeaters.

Saturday April 28th from 9a- noon: Great American Cleanup: Join us for this special event sponsored by Palmetto Pride to help clean up the areas around the community garden and La Puerta de Esperanza. Details below.

How else can you help?
If you are interested in starting seedlings to transplant into our garden or donating plants for our spring planting, please let us know! Donations are tax-deductible. We are also looking for volunteers to help with mowing or weedeating around the garden property. This does not have to occur during the organized work times, but at your convenience. If you are interested in helping with this, please email us!!

Finally- know someone who might be interested in the community garden? Please, please, please pass this information on to them, and let us know of any new friends we can add to our email list.

Thank you so much for your support of the garden and our Greenwood community. Look forward to seeing you at the garden!

Lynsey and Linda

Wrapping up 2011

There's much to update you on with Seaboard Jardin Maravilloso, and I thought it appropriate to do so before we ring in 2012. Back in October, we celebrated Make a Difference Day (see previous post for details) and were able to get some winter produce going, as well as develop a few new raised beds, add some beautiful flower beds, and clean up remenants of summer growing. Here's a great group pic, but check out the slideshow to the right, or facebook, for more pictures.

We also welcomed the Vivendo Mejor (or "Living Better") students from La Puerta de Esperanza out to enjoy a Halloween picnic. We got a scarecrow up, and some cute kiddos helped up get some watering done. (More pics on facebook!) We look forward to more time in the garden with these wonderful ladies in the spring.

More recently, we received a wonderful gift of $2000 in the form of a grant from Palmetto Pride! This was BIG news and we are thankful for the help of our wonderful elected officials Ms. Edith Childs and Ms. Betty Boles for their support of our grant application. Grant money will go toward some great garden development and beautification projects including the addition of a shed, benches, a picnic table, and trash can, as well as wheel barrels, a water collection system, irrigation system supplies and various other garden needs. We'll need your help setting all these great new items up, so keep an eye out for blog posts, email or facebook announcements!

Finally, just in time for Christmas, Park Seed provided Jardin Maravilloso, as well as several other wonderful community gardens throughout Greenwood, with a LARGE donation of bulbs! Since we need to get them in the ground ASAP, we have scheduled the bulb planting at Jardin Maravilloso for Saturday, January 7th from 9a-noon. If you haven’t been there before, the garden is located at approx. 504 Seaboard Avenue, not far from Uptown. We have A TON of bulbs, so the more help the better! If you are able, please bring hand tools, gloves and (if you have one) a "kneeling cushion" to save those knees! We are also welcoming donations of pine straw to mulch over these bulbs!

In addition, on Tuesday, January 10th from 10-noon, we’ll be finishing up any bulb planting with some of the elementary students from La Puerta de Esperanza while they're out of school. If you are interested in coming that morning and and overseeing our gardeners-in-training, we would certainly appreciate the help. As always, for more information, please email us at jardinmaravilloso@gmail.com.

We’re so excited about all that’s going on with Jardin Maravilloso and look forward to seeing you in the New Year! Thank you for your continued support!

Help us Make a Difference!

Happy Fall from Seaboard Jardin Maravilloso!

Please plan to join us NEXT Saturday morning, October 22nd, for National Make a Difference Day. We'll be doing a lot of fun activities at the garden and would love your company. Come help us add some more fall crops and flowers, develop a rock garden, build some more raised beds -and replenish your energy with some tasty hot chocolate and breakfast treats! Well be 'making a difference' from 9a until noon, so bring your whole family out to help us and meet others.

For more info about make a difference day, check out: http://www.usaweekend.com/section/MDDAY/Make-A-Difference-Day


Planning to join us? If you're able, bring those wheelbarrows, rakes and shovels!

Canning with Our Gardeners!

A few weeks ago we held a canning class for some of our interested community gardeners to teach them the basics of waterbath canning. After talking with our interested ladies, we decided to can tomatillo salsa, sugar-free peach jam and pickled jalapenos. Check out a few pictures below.

Teresa and Dionesia work on chopping up the jalapenos and
other hot peppers. We were glad we had some experts! These ladies
didn't even need gloves!

Edith and Maria work on canning the peach jam. Yolanda preps
the canning jars.

A beautiful can of finished tomatillo salsa

It's never to early to start appreciating garden produce :)

More Upcoming Activities!

Fall may be around the corner, but we're still growing at Jardin Maravilloso. Listed below are our next scheduled events for August and our September Potluck. We'd love to have you join us. Also, below these dates are a flier we're distributing, which includes both this information, and an overview of the community garden. If you know anyone who might be interested in gardening or working with us, please pass this information on. If you'd like this in a pdf or would like some hard copies to distribute, please, please, please contact us at jardinmaravilloso@gmail.com; we'd be happy to help you make that happen!

Sunday, August 7th from 1-4 p.m. :

We’re Canning! Interested in learning about home waterbath canning? Space is limited, contact us to secure your spot at this  FREE training!

Wednesday, August 24th 6p.m. (meet at the garden):

August Planting Day– Help us plant more of our fall plants!

Thursday, September 8th at 6p @ La Puerta (715 Chipley):

 Gardener Meeting and Potluck (Bring a dish, side or dessert to share!)

Garden Grill Out

I may be biased, but I would say that our garden grill out and planting night last Sunday was a success. We got some work done, enjoyed some good food, but most importantly, spent time getting to know one another on a beautiful summer evening. Here's the highlights; but you can check out more pics on our facebook page.

Jaime helps his son, Enrique, build a bird house.

Carly and Abby help the kids plant broccoli and potatoes in our seed
starters for our fall crop. We also planted carrots, squash, potatoes and cabbage
in our raised beds.

Grilling out! Things got a little hot...

Fidencio helps his son paint his bird house.

On a cumcumber hunt...

Alan and Jacob clear the ground for our new raised bed.

Charlie and Bill work on fixing a leak at the water tank.

Arlette works on spreading the soil in our new raised bed.

Stephan adds more soil to the bed.

The kids show Carly all the Marigolds they "dead-headed"after an
intense race to see who could get the most.

Okay, just a few more shots. Couldn't help but share some of our harvest:

Beautiful tomatillos!

Important Email! Don't Miss Out!

Friends, below is an email I just sent out to those on our email list. If you didn't recieve it, you're not on my list! If you would like to be added, please send me (jardinmaravilloso@gmail.com) your address and we'll add you. The attachment mentioned is also on the blog; it's the previous post. Here it is:

 

Hello! Linda and I wanted to email you with some important information about Seaboard Jardin Maravilloso!

 

First and foremost, if you haven't heard about our Garden Grill out and Planting Night THIS Sunday July 17th at 6p, let me be the first to invite you! The last announcement we sent out had the planting night listed, but at the previous potluck, we decided it would be great to grill out not only to celebrate the garden, but also as a means to stir up more interest in the community. So, tonight (7/13), a small group of us will be canvasing New Haven with information about the garden. Anyone is welcome to join, we'll be meeting at La Puerta (715 Chipley) at 6:30p. Also, an announcement about the grill out has been attached to this email; please feel free to pass it on to ANYONE you think may be interested. We'll have kid-friendly activities at the garden as well. We would really love to make this a BIG event, and we'd love to have you there. (One tip: If you plan to attend, we won't have tables, so a blanket might be a good idea to sit on while you eat.)

 

We're also looking for some help in a few areas for Sunday. Could you fill any of these needs?

• We need a grill! Don't worry, there's a back-up plan! BUT, if anyone is able to easily or conveniently transport a grill for the cook-out on Sunday night, it would be a HUGE help to Linda and I, as well be transporting a number of other things.
• We also could use a few extra coolers.
• As far as equipment, it's always great to have more shovels, metal rakes, wheelbarrows, or hand tools if you can throw those in your vehicle on your way over.
• We're looking for people to put in charge of different "jobs" or stations at the planting night. If you plan to come and would be willing to lead in an area (food, planting, post-hole digging, mulching, etc.), it would help us stay organized.
• Finally, we'd love to have music for this event, but to be honest, we're up to our ears in "to-dos", so are looking for someone who might be interested in coordinating that.

Please, Please, please contact us if you have any interest in helping in any of the above areas. Or, if you have other ideas, or would like to help or donate toward this event in other ways, we welcome your support!

 

In closing, we hope you've been checking out the blog lately, as a lot of exciting things have been happening; our drip system is a go, and we've been harvesting some great veggies! One update on harvesting: On Mondays, Lynsey is collecting any produce from the garden that has not been gathered from the previous week to donate to the local food bank and other various causes. If you would like items from the garden, please make sure to visit before Monday morning to ensure there's produce there. Also, don't forget about those herbs! If you haven't signed an "official" gardener contract, but have been involved with Jardin Maravilloso, we'd love for you to do so to show your support toward our endeavor.

 

As always, we're so grateful for your help and support. And, again, we'd LOVE to see you Sunday at 6p.

 

-Lynsey and Linda

Garden Grill Out THIS Sunday!

(Click on the photo above for a larger image.)

An Overdue Update

We've been so busy with different activities at Jardin Maravilloso the last few weeks, it's given me little time to report it all to you. Drip irrigation, more children's activities, a visit from local high school students... there's much to share in words and pictures! Plus, don't miss details about our upcoming Planting Night and Grill Out on July 17th! Details below!
First, during the last week of June, La Puerta had a large group of students participating in an art camp at the center. With the help of Amy Alley from the Arts Council, we had students assemble and paint bird houses that will soon adorn our garden.

Constructing our bird houses!

Carol Gray, director at La Puerta, helps the girls set up their houses.

Dylan focuses on putting details on his bird house.

Stephan does a great job adding lots of color!

The finished products!

Next, on Thursday, June 30th, I'm very excited to announce, we installed a wonderfully working drip irrigation stystem for the garden. We had a good group come out for the demonstration, including both new and familiar faces. With the guidance of Elyse Benson, the team installed the entire system in under three hours.

Elyse Benson discusses options for setting up the drip in the herb bed.

Linda and Tom Halsey work together to set up a line for our pumpkin patch.

Putting all ages to work!

Teresa makes sure all the tomatoes and peppers are getting good
access to the line, with the help of her daughter Arlette.

 

Yolanda tries to relax after the hard work, with the help of her son Javier,
joined by his younger brother Larry.

Finally, last Friday, July 8th, Piedmont Tech provided Jardin Maravilloso with some high school volunteers through its Upward Bound program, a program for high-achieving students who intend to be the first in their families to attend college. Despite the heat, the students accomplished a lot in just a few short hours.

One group of students work to assemble some new raised beds for the garden.

Working to clean out our cucumber and zucchini beds.

Spreading more mulch on the pathways.

Transporting the raised beds to the garden proved to be an interesting ride.

Our great group of kids from Upward Bound. Thank you Piedmont Tech!

Okay, just a little more to share. I wanted to point out a few more of our garden developments and plug our upcoming planting night.
First, with the help of Upward Bound, we have also installed and begun to fill our compost bin. We welcome any green material and kitchen scraps if you'd like to donate!

Also, Lauren Pinkston, a garden supporter and teacher at Lakeview, also helped us out by having this beautiful sign made with our garden rules and information.

Also, fencing is underway, thanks to the amazing Halsey family!

So, what's next? We'll be having a Planting Night on Sunday, July 17th at 6 p.m. at the garden site. Not only will we be planting, but we'll be eating! Come enjoy a grill out and celebrate all we've accomplished so far this year with Jardin Maravilloso. Bring your kids to help us fill and plant our newest raised beds. We'd love to have you there as we plant our fall crops and more! Questions? Please contact us at jardinmaravilloso@gmail.com! 

We're Growing Gardeners!

I asked a few of our students from the Junior Master Gardeners Camp we held a few weeks ago to join me in the garden to plant some pumpkins that had been patiently waiting at my home to make their first appearance at Jardin Maravilloso. Yoni and Camen were very excited to help out -actually "help out" is probably the wrong phrase, because they wouldn't let me do anything! Their enthusiasm is so exciting -and a bit contagious.

Also, remember my friend Yolanda who built these beds with us? She's been growing some beautiful jalapeno plants at home and brought them to the garden a few weeks ago to add to our collection. Don't they look great?!?