PING workshop.....

Four members of Seagrove Community Garden spent today at a workshop on beekeeping and building cross-cultural community at Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, NC. We spent the day working in their garden, sharing a phenomenal pot-luck lunch, listening to 2 Argentine beekeepers, and finished up the afternoon with a panel discussion about inviting other cultures into our community gardens. This was the 5th.workshop in a six-part series sponsored by PING, a collaborative effort between our garden, Covenant in Fuquay-Varina, NC, and Anathoth. The final workshop will be held at Cedar Grove UMC and will be about food preservation.

We spent much of the morning digging potatoes and pulling up onions.

Georgia, Beth and Susan taking a break in the shade.The beekeepers from Argentina.

Kids day.....

The PING workshop today at Covenant Community Garden in Fuquay-Varina was all about the kids. They spent the morning harvesting, mulching beds, hauling coarse mulch for walkways, and preparing an old bed for a new crop. After a pot-luck lunch and an afternoon worship service, the younger kids went off for a reading of Stone Soup, and the older kids stayed with the adults who were taught about urban market gardening by young folks from SEEDS.

Chris Burtner, garden manager of Covenant Community Garden, and Slate Gray and Jeff Daniels.

Kane Martinez, Slate and Jeff harvesting carrots.

Michael Martinez - not at all camera shy!

Lisa Martinez, Jeff and Slate sorting out the bad from the good carrots.

Susan Greene (co-manager of Seagrove Community Garden) and Lisa working in the herb beds.Ricardo, Markyse and Anthony, youth from SEEDS in Durham, pointing out one of the features of the urban, market garden where they are employed. Here's a blurb about SEEDS from the Durham Farmer's Market web site.....
SEEDS Community Garden has been an oasis nestled between residential and industrial neighborhoods in Northeast Central Durham since 1994. The produce we bring to the Durham Farmers Market is raised by the Durham Inner-city Gardeners (DIG), a youth-led urban farming leadership development program that has been a part of SEEDS for the past 8 years. Our quarter-acre market garden is a former parking lot that is now a balanced ecosystem of plants and pollinators.
DIG empowers teens by teaching gardening, sound business practices, healthy food choices and food security values. The program emphasizes sustainable living and growing practices, ecological balance, and the natural recycling of organic materials for plant health and nourishment. DIG youth are paid a stipend to cultivate the fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and mushrooms that they sell at the Durham Farmer's Market. We also sell our produce to LocoPops and the Durham Food Co-op.

Deer fence, day one.....

As a result of our sharing a Heifer International planning grant with 2 other faith-based gardens, we have started work on our deer fence. As we began planning on how to spend available grant monies we were advised to do 2 things first - build a fence to keep deer out, and build an irrigation system. It will probably take us another week to finish installing the fence, and by then our lettuce and spinach seedlings should be ready to plant. This Saturday, God willing and weather permitting, our gardeners will be planting potatoes and onions.

Doris Jean Barrett, the lady who graciously loaned the land for the garden. James Davis is running the Bobcat with the auger, making quick work of post hole digging.
James and Mary Davis, the folks that did most of the work.

Bill Spencer and Mary Davis, pruning brush to make room for the deer fence.
Tom, Bob, James and Mary, mixing quik-crete.

James Emery, Bob Dowling and James Davis setting one of the white oak posts for the deer fence.
Tom Gray, James Emery and Bob Dowling setting another post.

Odds and ends.....

Here are some more images from our PING workshops here at Seagrove and Anathoth.

Our steering committee.

3 of our garden members.

Working on the raised beds in Seagrove.

Workshop on transplanting seedlings at Anathoth.

Hoophouse greens.Mixing compost at the workshop at Anathoth.

Seed propagation, composting and succession planting.....

Members of the Seagrove Community Garden spent the day at a workshop on seed propagation, composting and succession planting at Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove, NC. This was the 2nd. workshop in a series of 6 PING workshops, all funded by Heifer International. The next workshop will be held at Anathoth as well, and will cover biointensive gardening, pest management and soil building.

Welcoming God and Other Strangers.....

Saturday, February 23rd. we held the first in a six-part workshop series on faith-based community gardening in conjunction with PING, Covenant Community Garden, Heifer International, Anathoth Community Garden, and Come to the Table. Seven families became members of our garden community that day, we also received many visitors, and were assisted in building 3 raised beds by folks from Anathoth and Covenant Community Gardens. We gathered together, told our stories, and broke the bread.Venetia Smith welcoming our guests.

Pilgrimage to the garden.

Everyone finding their niche and pitching in.Fred Bahnson, manager of Anathoth Community Garden.
Shoveling and hauling manure.John Hughes reminiscing on Anathoth's first year.Slate Gray pitching in.Catching a breath between working in the garden and lunch. Chris Burtner, garden manager at Covenant Community Garden in Fuquay-Varina, is the lady in the middle with her hands wrapped around the coffee cup.Carving the turkey. After all, it was a day of thanksgiving.There was plenty of food.Some of our guests.
Beth Norris speaking on Christian hospitality and community.Chris Franks speaking on communion as hospitality.Rich Church speaking on hospitality and creation.

Part of the assembly.

The Lord's supper - communion - Eucharist - thanksgiving.

Photographs courtesy of Claire Hermann, director of Come to the Table.

2008 workshops.....

Below you will find the schedule of community gardening workshops we will be participating in, along with our friends from Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, Come to the Table (a venture of the NC Council of Churches), Covenant Community Garden in Fuquay-Varina, and Heifer International. The midday meal will be potluck, and we ask that you bring food as well, BUT, if bringing food is a problem we'd rather have you there. Our flyer is also available in .pdf format.

2008 Saturday Workshops

Workshops are held the last Saturday of each month, February through July. They are free and open to the public. To register or for more information, call Claire Hermann at (919) 542-1396 x207.

9 a.m.- 12 p.m.- Garden Workshare
12 - 1 p.m. - Potluck Lunch
1- 4 p.m. - Workshop

Welcoming God and Other Strangers
Hospitality, Communion and Sharing the Fruits of the Garden
February 23, Seagrove Community Garden, Seagrove, NC

Planting the Garden
Seed Propagation, Composting and Succession Planting
March 29, Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove, NC

Enriching the Soil
Biointensive Gardening, Pest Management and Soil Building
April 26, Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove, NC

Youth in the Garden
Youth Ministries and Community Gardens
May 31, Covenant Community Garden, Fuquay Varina, NC

Reaching Across Cultures
Immigrant Gardeners Teach Beekeeping and Community Building
June 28, Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove, NC

Storing the Harvest
Food Preservation
July 26, Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove, NC

Harvest Celebration
Sharing and Celebrating the Year’s Lessons
November 1, Location TBA