Raised beds completed.

Thanks to a bunch of awesome volunteers (myself, John Webster, my kids, Rhonda Krebs, Stefka Sibbett, Eric Towell, and Amber Eaker), we completed twelve new raised beds over the weekend.

We built 4x8 foot frames from untreated pine lumber. The corners were secured with deck screws by John Webster.  We then laid them out, broke up the existing rich soil underneath, and lined each with several layers of donated newspaper. We added 100 pounds of cow manure compost on top of the newspaper, and topped the beds with wheat straw.  We wet down the layers and will transplant seedlings into our new beds!  We worked all day in the sun and were all exhausted at the end, but it was a satisfying kind of exhaustion.   Here are the pictures!

Raised beds!

I recruited (bribed) my family to help build twelve new raised beds in the garden today. Tomorrow, I am looking forward to having some volunteers to help fill them and prepare them for planting.

In the meantime, the Saint David Community Garden has a wish list!  Help us to get all these things by clicking on our fundraiser link on the right.

More raised beds!
Mulch and compost to fill beds
Raised bed border materials (bricks, stones, lumber, repurposed untreated wood, concrete blocks, etc)
A worm bed (for making lovely compost out of the garden waste
A beehive (to help pollinate our crops)
A tool shed
New garden tools (shovels, rakes, hoes, trowels, etc)
A tiller
A lawnmower
A weed eater

Click here to donate and help us make the community garden better for the citizens of Tarboro.

The garden needs volunteers!

For various reasons, many of our previous gardeners are not returning this year.  We have a lot of space available!

We (the few who are left) have decided that instead of charging a fee to get a plot at the garden, we should offer gardening space for FREE in exchange for help.  We need people who will plant their plots to utilize the space, and also help with keeping the grass cut, etc.   We may have to do some fund-raising later on to pay the water bill, but for now we are OK.  We need people more than anything!

The majority of the garden space has been tilled and planted in rows in the past, which I feel is a very labor-intensive way of growing vegetables.  I have my plot made into no-till beds, which I find works very well for me and is much easier.  I think that part of the reason that people don't return is that they find that keeping a large tilled spot is more work than they can maintain throughout the hot summer. For this reason, I think it's a great idea to build more no-till and/or raised beds in the garden.  This will make it much more attractive in the future for those who are new to gardening but who are intimidated by the work involved in turning a patch of grassy space into a food-producing garden.

Again, to do this, we need volunteers!  

The soil at the Saint David Street Community Garden is superb (and organic!), and the majority of the garden gets full sun all day.  If you or anyone you know has been interested in growing your own organic food but don't have space, or if you are experienced and want to help (or any level of interest in between), please contact me!

Jennifer Shearin
252-578-3393 (call or text)
info@jennifershearin.com
Or "Like" us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/tarborocommunitygarden

Also, we would appreciate any donations of supplies, wood pallets, lots of old newspapers (mulch), lumber, bricks, rocks (anything that can be used to build borders for beds), money, plants, garden tools, a lawnmower, a rain dance, a shout-out, or whatever you have that may be useful. 

The mission of the St. David Street Community Garden is to strengthen our community and foster self-sufficiency, good health, and interaction among the people of Tarboro by providing education and gardening space for food production and sustainable gardening practices.

Thanks to gardener Rhonda Krebs, we've got a new "sharing stand" at the garden! The old one was rotten, so she hauled it off and built this new one out of re-purposed wood and discarded paint. 

Also thanks to Rhonda, the garden has a new guardian. This is Daisy. She's looking pretty while watching Rhonda's peas.  She sure does give the garden some personality!

Thanks for all you do, Rhonda Krebs!

We had a late spring and a slow start to things, but the garden is getting ramped up for the 2013 growing season, and we've got some new people joining us. Look for pictures later in the season!

Early Summer at the Garden

It's June and the Garden Happenings are in full swing!  The weather has been great, mild temps and lots of rain, and things are growing at an astounding rate.  We've got our water hydrant and it has made things so much easier!   We have more involvement this year than we ever have, and it shows!  America in Bloom is coming to Tarboro in a couple of weeks to judge whether we deserve to be an "America in Bloom Community"...I certainly hope they stop by the Saint David Street Community Garden, because in terms of beautification and community involvement, we've got it going on!

Water is on the way!

Due to success with our recent flower bulb fundraiser, and some generous donations, we are in the process of getting our new water line installed! Gardeners Rhonda Krebs, Stefka Sibbett, and I, with the help of John Webster, met at the garden this morning with our shovels and mattocks to dig the trench for the new line from the meter to a spot in the garden. Local plumber and nice guy Terry Claiborne will be by to install our new line next week when he returns from vacation.



Despite hitting some tree roots and hard clay soil, the four of us managed to get it done in about an hour, saving a bunch of money since the plumber won't have to do any digging.

(Digging is hard work. Here's Rhonda taking a break.)


The hole has been covered and roped off to keep anyone who is walking by safe from falling in.



We still have a few plots available, but several have expressed interest. Looks like we might have a full garden this year!

Help us so we can help the community.

Last year, several gardeners were active in getting the Plant a Row for TCO campaign going, and many of us donated our excess produce to Tarboro Community Outreach. I, for one, took fourteen watermelons to the food pantry in one day (they all ripened at the same time).

In addition to providing fresh local vegetables to the needy, The Saint David Community Garden would like to make gardening accessible to those who are in poor health and/or can't afford to make a trip out of town to buy organic produce. Not only does gardening provide fresh, healthy food, it can also improve health by fostering a sense of belonging, community, and purpose. Gardening has been shown to beat depression and stress. It's great exercise, and the exposure to sunlight is good for Vitamin D levels. However, many people who would like to garden don't have the space, or they are physically unable to hoe, dig, till, weed, and haul water.

For the past four seasons, our gardeners have had to haul water in from outside sources when the rain barrels ran dry in the heat of summer. Not only that, but several of us, who were new to traditional row-gardening last year, found out what back-breaking labor it can be.

I have been using raised beds at my home for several years, and will continue to do so. I value my experience with the Community Garden last year, but I found that my raised beds at home were less work, needed less maintenance and weeding, and provided better harvests than my large in-ground garden at Saint David Street. Therefore, I will be moving two of my raised beds from my house to the Community Garden this spring.

We at the Community Garden, in order to make the Garden more accessible and more "do-able" for more people, would like to install some raised beds. These would require a nice-sized initial investment for materials, and we will donate labor to build the beds. We would also like to get a trench dug and hire a licensed plumber to run a water line for us, so we will have a reliable water source. These two things alone will make the Garden much more enjoyable and attractive to those people who really need to reap the benefits of organic vegetable gardening...our citizens.

If you'd like to donate a dollar or two, please click the link on the right side of the page and do so. Any amount will be much appreciated. Also, we are selling flower bulbs as a fundraiser through the end of March. Please call Jennifer at 252-578-3393 if you are interested in ordering summer bulbs. The bulbs we are selling will be in by the middle of April, can be planted right away, and will bloom this summer.

Do you know a Boy Scout who needs a service project? The Community Garden would be a great project!