County United Way Day of Caring and Sharing

Soooo we have been busy getting the garden ready for our Grand Opening, which is set for Saturday May 16, 2015. Leading up to that, we needed to make sure everything would be ready. So fortunately when Mary Beth Pirolozzi heard about our garden, she asked if we wanted to have volunteers help us on the Day of Sharing and Caring and we said YES YES YES!! We were very fortunate to have 7 people from the Department of Social Services (DSS) choose our garden as their project.

In the meantime, Tara was very busy getting all of the garden plots assigned. Nancy and her team spent a few days in the lobby at DSS doing health screenings and telling everyone about our garden. Also Kathy arranged for an interview and article to appear in the Cumberland Times-News. We also called churches surrounding the gardens location and the principal at the nearby high school to help get the word out. So we were lucky and we have all of the plots taken. 

What we decided to do was reserve one of the plots for a strawberry patch. The fruit would be available to anyone who had a plot. Now let me tell you a little bit about strawberries...I may not grow them but OMG I love to eat them. They are my favorite!! So we planted 3 different kinds of strawberries, one of which is to grow strawberries the size of nectarines. Tara bought those just for me!! Won't that be wonderful!! I may have to eat all of those just to make sure they are okay. HAHA!! Just kidding! Now we also reserved 2 other plots as well and our internal team is going to oversee them. The produce from those may go to the food bank or if someone else needs assistance we will have some produce to offer. But 23 other plots have been taken by 23 other people all interested and excited about growing their own produce.  

And in the week prior to Day of Caring and Sharing we got some other great help. One of our retired physicians saw our article in the paper and offered to give us flowers on the Day of Caring and Sharing and tomato seedlings on our opening day! And Connie Otto had applied for a grant and got word that we received the grant of seed packets from "Hermann's Garden,” a program that supports community, school and jail gardens. So we are going to be in great shape come opening day with all of this and the seedlings from WCI as well!!

So the Day of Caring and Sharing came beautifully clear and hot! Perfect. Everything we needed was there, the DSS people, Terry and the grounds crew, Carey and Jennifer from Community Health and Wellness and our internal team bolstered by two other members, Connie's nephew Josh from Virginia and Hermann Engelhardt, who occasionally is part of our team. And we went to work. I of course spent my time singing and talking to the baby strawberry plants as I planted them to ensure that they were going to be happy in their new setting!!

Everybody went to work and, honestly before you knew it, the 4 trees were planted, the 4 fruit bushes and strawberries were planted, the 200+ flowers were planted. Connie even brought lettuce, Swiss chard and broccoli to get started in one of the team plots. My husband came by and took some videos and pictures so we can commemorate the day. 

Now we have 2 things left for us to do this week before the Grand Opening. First, we need to add 2 feet of height to the fence in order to keep those hungry deer out. I don't want them getting to my tasty strawberries as well as the other produce. Terry will add extensions to the posts and wire in order to reach 8 feet. And for the first couple of weeks, we will have yellow ribbons tied to the wire so the deer can see there is something there. I don't want any of the deer to get hurt. I love animals, children, strawberries....well I guess there isn't a lot I don't love...except stink bugs!  

And the last thing we have to do is finish the children's garden area. Tara and I are going to Lowe's to get a sandbox so the real little ones will have something to do that will be fun. And we had seen some amazing things with cut up and painted tires. We wanted to do a daisy shape and plant produce inside of that but it just did not work out. So many of the tires have steel belts in them and when cut they will leave a sharp edge. Terry is looking to see if next time we can get the really big tires that are used for farm equipment that don't have the steel belt. So instead we found Teacup gardens that are made with two tires on top of one another. Terry and his team bolted the tires together like the picture we found instructed. The early part of the week they power washed them and gave them a white base coat. Then Tara and I will paint them so they are ready to go on Saturday. We have baby carrots, cherry tomatoes etc. for those. And one of Terry's team had a great idea...they are going to make a single handle for one to be a tea cup but the other will have 2 handles and be a sugar bowl!!! How cute!! Then we will be done done and all ready for Saturday's Grand Opening.

We are also using our daily huddle to recruit for volunteers so we have at least one person assigned to visit the garden each evening to ensure everything is watered, the water is turned off and the gate is locked.

Well that's all for now. I'll be back to tell you all about the Grand Opening on Saturday May 16!

-Jo