It WILL be good!
Hi everyone.
I remember often the day I went to “just take notes” at a workshop on community gardening. I remember the trip that was planned to go visit my sister in VA that weekend and the recent death of a beloved Concord church member. I remember wishing I had been a member sooner so that I would have met Miriam Dean. I remember hearing all the heartwarming and wonderful stories about her from her family and church family. I remember hearing about the upcoming workshop and that a refund for attendance was submitted because our Pastor would be presiding at the funeral on that day. I remember this tugging of my heart wishing that I could somehow go to that workshop but not wanting to disappoint my family. Where was this feeling coming from? I didn’t know how to garden really…mostly weeding my husband’s garden..dabbled with some lettuce and marigolds. Organic growing? What was that all about? I remember the elation when the trip plans changed. I remember immediately emailing Pastor David to see if I could go in his place and “just take notes”. I remember the constant fluttering of my heart as I took LOTS of notes while touring Anatoth Community Garden and learning all the ways that we could reach out to many by sharing, working, and taking care of God’s creation. I think what I most remember though is an overwhelming feeling, a silent voice (wasn’t sure then, but I now know who the voice belonged to )that kept saying to me… “it WILL be good!”
As we begin our fourth year of The Garden of Concord, I am continually amazed at the love and support that our Concord UMC church family and the community of Eli Whitney have shown through prayers, donations, and time spent in the garden. God has blessed our community with the knowledge of how to be good stewards of His creation by sharing His love to many through the planting of seeds of faith and watching them grow. The fruits of the harvest have nurtured the hearts and health of many through learning organic growing practices, food awareness, and new friendships, along with connecting our food to our faith.
This year, we are excited to join together again in food and fellowship at our favorite gatherings to include our First Fruits Luncheon, Tomato Sandwich Supper, Harvest Celebration Dinner, and Final Fruits Luncheon. We also resume our weekly Kidz Thyme program, summer weekly water fun nights, and Garden Gritz. Our work nights are changing to Tues/Thurs 5:30-7:30 and Saturdays from 9-Noon.
We have lots of new ideas planted to include a brick pizza oven and picnic shelter (Eagle Scout projects!), Bed Blessing donations, First Fruit Fridays and Sample Saturdays, and also working on our next summer series. A Food and Faith three week Bible study is planned for April to be led by Daniel Corpening, our garden intern, which will culminate with our annual “Blessing of the Garden of Concord” joined by Crosswave! We will be providing more details for all of these plantings in succession!
We officially “Wake up the garden” on March 3 with an encore presentation (snooze alarm!) on 3/10th and have tentative plans to co-host a public movie screening of “Fresh the Movie” at the Saxapahaw Ballroom on March 9th. Again, more details to follow as these plantings grow!
As you can see, I am really excited at all the plans and plantings God has in store for us in our garden and community. I thank you again, Concord UMC for your many blessings. It WILL be good!
-Donna
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Season finale in The Garden of Concord!
Our final season episode was packed with plenty of fabulous food, fun, and fellowship at our Final Fruits luncheon last month. We are so thankful to all of our garden members, garden angels, our community, and Concord UMC for their incredible support and prayers for our garden! We are so thankful to God for His leading in the creation of the Garden of Concord and the members He has graced us with to work and take care of His gift.
The fruits shared with each other were in abundance through many harvests of prayers, joys, and lots of fresh veggies! Beginning with our “Wake up the Garden” in March, our seasons were filled with many fresh beginnings and blessings to include 21 new family memberships along with 10 new feathered friends! We celebrated love at our First Fruits Luncheon, “Nurtured our Nutrition” with our summer garden series, ate lots of tomatoes at our “Tomato Sandwich Supper”, filled up on delicious dishes at our “Fall Harvest Dinner”, splashed on summer nights, and had an especially good thyme with the kidz!
While our garden is officially in slumber, the Brussels are still sprouting and the kale is still calling! The majority of our beds have been tucked in with cover crop and will be full of fresh energy for our new plantings in the spring. We are also still harvesting a variety of garden gifts to include notecards, postcards, prints, magnets, t-shirts, and calendars…all with beautiful photos of our garden taken by garden members. Your support will significantly help buy our seed and feed...for our plantings and our girls! Great Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers!!
We are planning another “Food and Faith” Bible study in January and will be providing the details soon. Also, mark your calendars for our 2012 “Wake up the Garden” tour and celebration on March 3, 2012!
Thank you again for your shared love of God’s creation in the Garden of Concord. Wishing you many seasons of blessings and harvests of joy through the New Year! It WILL be good!
-Donna Poe
Garden Coordinator
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Many Fall Blessings in the Garden of Concord!
Hi everyone.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers for our garden! With the change of seasons, so is our garden as we have been pulling up our summer crops and planting the fall. We have begun harvesting a few leaves of Romaine, turnip greens, and kale, with our spring mix and possibly carrots due in a couple of weeks. Our Brussels sprouts are over a foot tall, the snap peas are creeping up their trellis, and the beets are looking good. The sweet potatoes are being harvested this week with a few previews indicating football size taters! Still picking peppers, okra, beans, and eggplant, and the basil remains bountiful. We have been thinning out and transplanting runners from our strawberry beds and have tons to share (so let me know if you want any). Our chickens are laying an average of 9 eggs per day and we have one broody hen. We will be planting garlic and flower bulbs during the month of October along with preparing beds and planting cover crops for their winter slumber.
We are so thankful for our new intern, Daniel Corpening, along with two new members this past month..welcome Traci Philips and Jennifer Booker! New fall pictures are on facebook and updates on our blog: thegardenofconord.blogspot.com. Our Kidz Thyme continues on Monday nights from 6-7 with Debbie Cook leading our Jr. gardeners in a variety of fun gardening themed activities and is enjoyed by all (including the moms)!
Our fall garden season officially began 9/1, however, it is never too late to join the garden! Only $10.00 per season with our last work day for fall scheduled to be on 11/19, with some of our fall veggies available to harvest through the winter. If you would like to learn more about our garden and have some seeds of ideas you would like to share, join us at our next Garden Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, October 25th at 6:30 pm. Come grow with us! It WILL be good!
-Donna Poe, Garden Coordinator
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Feelin’ Like Fall!
Greetings from the Garden of Concord! As our summer season and final wave of water nights is upon us, we are excited about the fresh fall “fruits” now planted and planned! We look forward to a bounty of Brussels sprouts, lots of lettuce, beets, turnips, sugar snap peas, kale, okra, and carrots. It is never too late to join the garden!
We are still harvesting some tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, basil, and melons with sweet potatoes soon! Our chickens are averaging a colorful 9 eggs per day and we suspect that they are all now laying. They are also very food demanding so please remember them with any discarded fruits (especially melon rinds) and veggies (not moldy). Our Kidz Thyme will continue through the fall on Monday nights along with shared tid bits during Garden Gritz!
Our summer series, “Nurturing our Nutrition” concluded last month with an informative canning class given by Jessica Oswald from the Alamance County Extension Agency. Thank you everyone for your participation and donations! For next year, we are considering “Getting Back into the Kitchen” for a series of guest chefs! For our 3rd Annual Harvest Celebration Dinner on 8/26, we had a roomful of family, friends, food, and fellowship!
Thank you again everyone for your continued help, support, donations, and prayers for The Garden of Concord!
It WILL be good!
-Donna
Monday, August 1, 2011
One Tomato, Two Tomatoes, Three Tomatoes...
We are all about tomatoes now in the garden as we have been enjoying abundant harvests and had great fellowship at our Tomato Sandwich Supper this past Friday night! Brandywine, Amish Paste, Rutgers, Amana Orange, Valencia, and Yellow Pear Cherry are now readily picked with the Mortgage Lifters, German Johnson, and Longkeepers to be maturing in succession through the remaining summer into fall. We are also enjoying lots of leeks, plenty of peppers, bucketful’s of cukes, bounties of basil, still some blueberries, clusters of grapes, and three colors of beans! In a couple of weeks, our edamame beans should be ready along with some cantaloupes with the watermelons shortly following.
Our chickens have been behaving themselves since we topped their run with a roof. They too enjoy our regular harvests along with the extra donations of treats from all of you! They love stale bread, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and especially watermelon! At our recent Garden Gritz while "Chatting About Our Chickens", 4 eggs were discovered in one of the nesting boxes. Hadn't checked recently because we thought they had another month to mature! Looking forward to dozens more soon from the rest of the flock!
The kidz have been enjoying summer garden fun with our water fun nights and Kidz Thyme which have switched for the season. Kidz Thyme is now on Monday’s from 6-7pm and we then slide on Wednesdays. Garden Gritz will also be on Monday nights at 6:30.
We enjoyed Part II of “Nurturing our Nutrition” yesterday with an amazing presentation by Ron Veitel, the general manager and seasoned nutritionist from Saxapahaw General Store on “The Circle of Nutrition”. His talk provided a detailed understanding of how we are connected to God's creation through a circle of rhythm, cycles,and seasons, the plants and animals He provides, our call to take care of His creation to include our own bodies, and the effects of healthy eating verses non. Part III of our summer series on nutrition is scheduled for Saturday, 8/20 from 12-2pm with a canning class given by Jessica Oswald from the Alamance County Extension Agency.
We also look forward to our 3rd Annual Harvest Celebration Dinner scheduled for 8/26 from 6-8pm. Also our fall season registration begins September 1st with a full menu of crops planned with some already started! It is never too late to join the garden!
Thank you everyone for your continued help, support, donations, and prayers for The Garden of Concord!
It WILL be good!
-Donna Poe
Our chickens have been behaving themselves since we topped their run with a roof. They too enjoy our regular harvests along with the extra donations of treats from all of you! They love stale bread, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and especially watermelon! At our recent Garden Gritz while "Chatting About Our Chickens", 4 eggs were discovered in one of the nesting boxes. Hadn't checked recently because we thought they had another month to mature! Looking forward to dozens more soon from the rest of the flock!
The kidz have been enjoying summer garden fun with our water fun nights and Kidz Thyme which have switched for the season. Kidz Thyme is now on Monday’s from 6-7pm and we then slide on Wednesdays. Garden Gritz will also be on Monday nights at 6:30.
We enjoyed Part II of “Nurturing our Nutrition” yesterday with an amazing presentation by Ron Veitel, the general manager and seasoned nutritionist from Saxapahaw General Store on “The Circle of Nutrition”. His talk provided a detailed understanding of how we are connected to God's creation through a circle of rhythm, cycles,and seasons, the plants and animals He provides, our call to take care of His creation to include our own bodies, and the effects of healthy eating verses non. Part III of our summer series on nutrition is scheduled for Saturday, 8/20 from 12-2pm with a canning class given by Jessica Oswald from the Alamance County Extension Agency.
We also look forward to our 3rd Annual Harvest Celebration Dinner scheduled for 8/26 from 6-8pm. Also our fall season registration begins September 1st with a full menu of crops planned with some already started! It is never too late to join the garden!
Thank you everyone for your continued help, support, donations, and prayers for The Garden of Concord!
It WILL be good!
-Donna Poe
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Part II of our summer series "Nurturing Our Nutrition"
The Garden of Concord invites all to Part II of "Nurturing our Nutrition" scheduled for Sunday, July 31st from 2-4:30 with a presentation by Ron Vietel, General Manager of the Saxapahaw General Store and seasoned nutritionist.
The talk entitled "The Circle of Nutrition" will take us on a round trip tour of the many important elements required in obtaining complete nutrition to include environmental factors,soil attributes, planting, harvesting, and consuming local foods. There will be hands on demonstrations, a question and answer session, and of course some healthy snacks!!
The event is free but we would welcome any donations! Space is limited and reservations are suggested.
Event location: Concord UMC Fellowship Hall. 4462 East Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road, Graham (Eli Whitney), NC 27253.
Come nurture with us...it WILL be good!
-Donna
The talk entitled "The Circle of Nutrition" will take us on a round trip tour of the many important elements required in obtaining complete nutrition to include environmental factors,soil attributes, planting, harvesting, and consuming local foods. There will be hands on demonstrations, a question and answer session, and of course some healthy snacks!!
The event is free but we would welcome any donations! Space is limited and reservations are suggested.
Event location: Concord UMC Fellowship Hall. 4462 East Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road, Graham (Eli Whitney), NC 27253.
Come nurture with us...it WILL be good!
-Donna
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
COMPOSTING...Collection to completion.
Our 2nd session of Garden Gritz two Wednesdays ago (sorry..a little behind!) was on composting and why we organic gardeners LOVE this free black gold treasure!
We don't feed the plants, we feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants. Compost is made up of partially decomposed organic materials, mostly plants and the manures of plant eating animals, and the soil dwelling microbes that do the decomposing. Compost helps the garden by providing nutrition needed for vigorous plant growth, improving soil structure, increasing the ability of soil to retain water, contributing to the health of plants, moderating soil pH, and feeding soil organisms. No wonder we love it so much and so does our plants!
In the The Garden of Concord, we begin, side dress, and end our beds and seasons with compost and lots of it. We have been feeding and making our own compost from the beginning and supplementing the large volume needed with gracious donations from Brooks Compost every year. One of my favorite days of the year is when the semi from Brooks pulls up early Spring and I stand there smiling and thanking God while watching 38 yards of rich dark dirt dumped into a huge pile that the kids will be so excited about at the the next garden work night! Without getting too technical,I will share with you some of the basics that I have learned and how we make our compost.
Getting the right balance and recipe for compost is not too difficult, however, the finished product occurs faster if you follow a few simple guidelines. Like everything else that grows, Compost is made up of many elements. The two most important are carbon and nitrogen. Carbon is the "brown" component of compost and would involve the layering of sources such as dried out stems, stalks, or leaves of plants, straw, hay, dried out pea, and bean vines, and fall leaves. All free stuff naturally occurring and gifts from God! The nitrogen element, or "green" factor would include grass clippings, kitchen scraps (veggies, fruits, eggshells, stale bread, coffee grinds..) and any non diseased freshly pulled up plant debris. Our chickens do their part by donating their droppings and feathers when we clean out their coop area.
We had originally built a 4-Bin system using scrap lumber and have since added additional bins with donated pallets for the sides tied together and also one on the bottom (great for airflow). We begin a pile by layering 6" of browns and then following with some greens, then a thin layer of dirt or finished compost and this is when the chickens donations can be added also. Time for more browns again with approx 3" of crunchy dry stuff. The layering then continues while trying to keep a ratio of approximately 30-1 by weight and roughly 3"-1" in volume. Two additional important elements to the living compost is providing sufficient air flow and water. We water in between layers for the consistency to resemble a wrung out sponge and also by turning the pile frequently (after the pile has been layered up to 4'), sufficient airflow will be obtained. Without the above 4 elements and layering increments, the pile will not heat up properly, will delay a timely completion, and maybe get smelly! We strive for workable finished compost within 4 months, but you can still get some good compost w/o a lot of effort by letting it just sit for a year or more.
A fully layered 4' pile should heat up to approx 140-160 degrees fairly quickly and stay up there for 3 weeks or so. If the temp starts dropping, we make sure it has been well watered and fluffed up a bit. After 3-4 weeks, it is time to turn the pile (moving the materials from the outside top to the center bottom) to Bin #2 with then continued frequent watering, fluffing, and checking temp to see if it is maintaining a good heated temp range to around 110 degrees. Another 3-4 weeks later, time to turn to #3 and then subsequently to #4. The temp finally drops to around 80 degrees and we then work it through a sifter we made to shred up and remove any large pieces such as non-decomposed branches. If the pile is not reheating at this point and remaining at around 80 degrees or below, it is considered stable and ready to feed to the garden!
That is my version of "Composting 101" excluding many more details that I could go into, but our Garden Gritz break is over and it is time to get back to work and take care of God's creation!
It WILL be good!
-Donna
We don't feed the plants, we feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants. Compost is made up of partially decomposed organic materials, mostly plants and the manures of plant eating animals, and the soil dwelling microbes that do the decomposing. Compost helps the garden by providing nutrition needed for vigorous plant growth, improving soil structure, increasing the ability of soil to retain water, contributing to the health of plants, moderating soil pH, and feeding soil organisms. No wonder we love it so much and so does our plants!
In the The Garden of Concord, we begin, side dress, and end our beds and seasons with compost and lots of it. We have been feeding and making our own compost from the beginning and supplementing the large volume needed with gracious donations from Brooks Compost every year. One of my favorite days of the year is when the semi from Brooks pulls up early Spring and I stand there smiling and thanking God while watching 38 yards of rich dark dirt dumped into a huge pile that the kids will be so excited about at the the next garden work night! Without getting too technical,I will share with you some of the basics that I have learned and how we make our compost.
Getting the right balance and recipe for compost is not too difficult, however, the finished product occurs faster if you follow a few simple guidelines. Like everything else that grows, Compost is made up of many elements. The two most important are carbon and nitrogen. Carbon is the "brown" component of compost and would involve the layering of sources such as dried out stems, stalks, or leaves of plants, straw, hay, dried out pea, and bean vines, and fall leaves. All free stuff naturally occurring and gifts from God! The nitrogen element, or "green" factor would include grass clippings, kitchen scraps (veggies, fruits, eggshells, stale bread, coffee grinds..) and any non diseased freshly pulled up plant debris. Our chickens do their part by donating their droppings and feathers when we clean out their coop area.
We had originally built a 4-Bin system using scrap lumber and have since added additional bins with donated pallets for the sides tied together and also one on the bottom (great for airflow). We begin a pile by layering 6" of browns and then following with some greens, then a thin layer of dirt or finished compost and this is when the chickens donations can be added also. Time for more browns again with approx 3" of crunchy dry stuff. The layering then continues while trying to keep a ratio of approximately 30-1 by weight and roughly 3"-1" in volume. Two additional important elements to the living compost is providing sufficient air flow and water. We water in between layers for the consistency to resemble a wrung out sponge and also by turning the pile frequently (after the pile has been layered up to 4'), sufficient airflow will be obtained. Without the above 4 elements and layering increments, the pile will not heat up properly, will delay a timely completion, and maybe get smelly! We strive for workable finished compost within 4 months, but you can still get some good compost w/o a lot of effort by letting it just sit for a year or more.
A fully layered 4' pile should heat up to approx 140-160 degrees fairly quickly and stay up there for 3 weeks or so. If the temp starts dropping, we make sure it has been well watered and fluffed up a bit. After 3-4 weeks, it is time to turn the pile (moving the materials from the outside top to the center bottom) to Bin #2 with then continued frequent watering, fluffing, and checking temp to see if it is maintaining a good heated temp range to around 110 degrees. Another 3-4 weeks later, time to turn to #3 and then subsequently to #4. The temp finally drops to around 80 degrees and we then work it through a sifter we made to shred up and remove any large pieces such as non-decomposed branches. If the pile is not reheating at this point and remaining at around 80 degrees or below, it is considered stable and ready to feed to the garden!
That is my version of "Composting 101" excluding many more details that I could go into, but our Garden Gritz break is over and it is time to get back to work and take care of God's creation!
It WILL be good!
-Donna
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)