Garden Feast

Youth, mentors, parents, and staff gathered yesterday for a delicious garden feast!

We used veggies from our garden and supplemented our bounty with produce and meat from local farmers.

Everyone got to decorate her/his own tortilla pizza with such ingredients as: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, carrots, okra, herbs, sausage, and cheese.

We also made veggie pasta salad and baked apples! 

The event was a fitting celebration of the end of the summer/beginning of the new school year. It also served to connect seed to table as we shared food we had grown from seed ourselves!

With our abundance of  tomatoes, peppers, and okra, families were also able to bring fresh food home.

We hope everyone involved in the garden this season has learned, grown, tasted, and enjoyed during our agricultural acts together. Our efforts are small, but we continue to believe in the power of rippling goodness to bring about positive change.

  

Keep G.R.OW.ing, harvesting, sharing, and eating!

Horticulture Camp

We were very proud for one of our outstanding youth, Josh, to participate in the first horticulture science summer institute at N.C. State! Josh spent a week with other students from across the state learning about vegetables, flowers, fruits, landscaping, permaculture, college possibilibies, job opportunities, etc. Aspiring horticulturists went on field trips to area farms, participated in hands on experiments and activities with local experts, and found time for socializing and fun too!

Josh has been very active in our garden program this season. He came weekly to plant in the greenhouse this spring and has helped in our gardens and at the market this summer. He also  confidently presented a powerpoint about our work in the greenhouse for a grant reception! We are tremendously excited to see a youth with such an interest and commitment in horticulture! And with a pun totally intended, we hope that our little gardens have "planted a seed" for Josh and other youth as they continue on their journeys. We hope that participants will be inspired to seek careers in agriculture, have their own gardens, or simply have a better understanding of where food comes from.

Congratulations to Josh! We are so proud of you!

Neighborhood Gardening

In June and July, students in our summer neighborhood garden have been enthusiastically gardening twice a week.

They have been busy planting, watering, fence building, and weeding. They have harvested and tasted broccoli, cucmbers, cabbage and about two cherry tomatoes.

We are patiently waiting on more crops like peppers, corn, zucchini, and melon!

In addition to gardening, the students have participated in activites related to nutrition, art, culture, safety, and health.

These are a few recent pictures of weeding and tomato staking.

We are very excited about the energy surrounding this little garden space!

GROW art

Our sign is up! Now folks passing by will know our name: G.R.O.W. (Garden Ripples Over Wilkes)!

Special thanks to Nancy and Mary for sharing their talent and time! Also thanks to Roy for putting the sign up in the garden! And of course, thanks to the youth who helped collage the back and put on the finishing touches!

Our garden is beautiful, but the artwork adds a new creativity to our space!

First Market!

This week we harvested veggies and brought them to our first market! Okra, peppers, beets, carrots, kohlrabi, kale, collards, chard, basil, rosemary, zucchini/squash, and cucumbers!

We sold or gave away most everything!

We had a great team of youth to help harvest, wash, set up, sell, and clean up!

For our first market, we did really well. It was a great learning experience on how to make our produce presentable, interact with customers, describe our veggies, keep track of records, etc.

We hope to continue to be at the Smoot Park Market from 3:30-5:30 on Tuesdays! Stop by and check our our produce and meet our young gardeners!

Crop Mob!

The gardens continue to evolve through our colletive efforts, and especially through nature's efforts beyond our control. With June's abundant sunshine, okra and peppers are growing. Green tomatoes are appearing. Squash are hidden treasures to be found.

A recent crop mob of 4H youth gardeners and our own Communities in Schools folks combined forces to accomplish a great deal in the garden! Areas of high weeds were covered with cardboard/newspaper and mulch. Spring plants were removed to make way for new seeds. Thirsty plants were watered. The garden is really taking shape thanks to our volunteers!

Soon, we hope to add a much anticipated art piece to our garden! So stay tuned!

Summer veggies!

Summer vegetables are gradually making their way into the ground! Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons... Most of which we planted this spring in the greenhouse! Its exciting to see plants grow from something so small! And, it will of course be wonderful to start harvesting fruit from these plants!We are putting our artwork to use as we label our crops with colorful signs!

And we have a little bit of several different crops ready to eat: broccoli, kohlrabi, peas, peppers, and okra!

Last week, we added a third garden to our efforts! This garden is within a neighborhood and youth join us twice a week for gardening and activities. In a short period of time, we planted cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash... and also planted seeds for corn, sunflowers, and other flowers! Many hands can make the work go by tremendously fast! What we didn't have space for in the garden, the students enthusiastically brought home! It is very encouraging to see the youth so excited about gardening! Pictures from our new garden will be coming soon!