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Faith S
Perpetually learning gardener
Alabama, USA
Lovelady Center Victory Garden going and growing18 Jun '08 4:04 am
Hi Dixie, yes I am still kicking. May and June have seemed to fly past for me. Lots of out-of-town visitors to my farm and lots of work days at the Lovelady Victory Garden. It feels like forever since I posted anything, so I will try to catch everyone up a little.
The Victory Garden is growing. Our teen volunteers have been coming every Saturday to lend a hand and my hubby and I are there on Wednesdays working with any residents who are available to work on the garden. We now have eight large beds finished and planted. The Kidzone day campers have been working in the garden planting seed and picking beans. They are learning about how food grows. Some of these kids have never seen food growing in the ground.
Attached below are some photos showing the growth of our plants.
One of the resident volunteers weeding.jpg
I have told them not to walk in the beds, so we put two x four boards down and sit on them to work in the beds. Long range plans are for permanent stepping stones down the middle of each bed.
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First tomato.jpg
Can you see the dark, rich compost covering the soil. We finally got a load of compost delivered. It is full of debris, but pretty good after it's cleaned up a bit.
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Grape tomatoes.jpg
See the tiny grape tomatoes. They might get enough for each resident to have one each, but it's a start.
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Dixie
garden enthusiast
Waikato-New Zealand
update18 Jun '08 6:31 am
thanks for the update,Faith.Wow-the tomatoes have grown rapidly-it must be perfect conditions for them there.
Dixie.
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Kerole
nominate your own title
Taupaki, New Zealand
Good work!18 Jun '08 3:52 pm
I've been following this amazing endeavour. So much done in such a relatively short space of time. And such a good cause too. Bravo Faith and all your helpers. 
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MacFlax
nominate your own title
Canberra, Australia
18 Jun '08 5:24 pm
Wonderful.  Well done!
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moosey
head gardener
18 Jun '08 5:27 pm
Good to hear from you and to see what's up and growing. You are two special people and certainly legends to be running such a great venture, as well as your own farm and garden. How's the water - ponds? And is it time to say hello to the Japanese beatles?
I'd much rather you said hello to NGBill (I like that!) and also to the volunteers and helpers - do they know that we are all reading and watching the progress?
Tomatoes - yum. I looked at a packet of mixed cherry style tomato seedlings the other (wintry) day at the nursery...
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moosey
head gardener
12 Jul '08 4:47 pm
Faith, how's your Lovelady Victory Garden going? Hopefully you're not having any watering problems. Happy growing!
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Faith S
Perpetually learning gardener
Alabama, USA
Garden progress15 Jul '08 6:25 am
Hello Moosey, you gardening legend! I am so impressed with your winter gardening.
The Lovelady Victory Garden is progressing slowly. We have hit a snag with obtaining more railroad timbers short term, so we are concentrating on beautifying what we have and on teaching the children of the day camp about gardening. They love planting seeds and watching things grow, picking vegetables and even weeding. Can you imagine that? I have been teaching two to three classes on Wednesdays and Ducky (their Special Projects Coordinator) has them up in the garden almost every other day of the week. We have sponge-painted sunflowers on pots and then planted sunflower seed, harvested vegetables and talked about pollination and the difference between good and bad bugs, studied earthworms and talked about what they do for the soil, learned about why it is important to keep weeds out of the garden. This past Wednesday, they all got to hydrate a peat pellet and then plant zinnia seeds to take home and grow on a windowsill. We packaged them in plastic bags and told them to leave the pot in the bag until they saw little green shoots coming up. This was a lesson in evaporation and how rain is made. This coming Wednesday, I think we are going to make "grassheads". These are made by putting a handful of grass seed in the toe of a cut off pantyhose leg. Adding soil to stuff the toe, then tying a knot to hold the soil in place. They you either paint on a face or glue on beads, etc. to make a face. Water and wait for the hair (grass) to grow.
The seatwalls are all in place, but some of them still need staining. I think they really dress up the beds. It is really exciting to see it beginning to come together. There is still a lot to be done, but we can begin to see how it will look. There are some really talented and artistic women there. I can't take any credit for most of the embellishments. I just help out where I can.
Below are the latest pictures.
Tomato Bed.jpg
We raided the junk pile for some crib parts that were incomplete to make supports for our tomato and cucumber plants. This one is a tomato "bed". Pretty cute, huh?
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Cucumbers.jpg
The side rails came in handy for making trellis supports for our cucumber vines. The vines grow up strings tied to the rails and anchored at the end of the bed.
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Pumpkins and watermelons.jpg
This bed is planted with pumpkins on one side and watermelons on the other. The plants are blooming and starting to set fruit. We were a little late getting them started, but with the heat coming off all that concrete, I think they'll do okay.
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Ornamental bed and murals.jpg
This is one of the ornamental beds that will flank the stage where they want to have outdoor concerts and chapel services. They have painted murals on the concrete walls.
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Second ornamental bed and more murals.jpg
We don't have much in the ornamental beds yet. A few annuals from seed, some transplanted sunflowers (started by the children), okra and a few donated perenniel plants. We hope to add more perenniel divisions soon.
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Victory Garden Sign.jpg
This is the beginning of the Lovelady Victory Garden sign. They want to paint flowers, etc. around the lettering.
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Kerole
nominate your own title
Taupaki, New Zealand
Good job!15 Jul '08 7:45 am
Wow, what a fab job you have all done. The seating platforms look fantastic. The bed (crib) is a very nice touch - looks like the sort of thing you find in arty gardening books. I like it a lot! The whole place feels like a well organised garden and the murals are gorgeous. I can imagine it must be a favourite place for the kids (and the adults!). Once again Faith, you and all the other helpers are stars. Well done.
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MacFlax
nominate your own title
Canberra, Australia
15 Jul '08 2:59 pm
What a wonderful job you are all doing! The seats are practical and have really finished off the beds beautifully. The murals are a lovely bright addition. The plants are coming along great. It's wonderful to see the progress. Well done!
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Mark
Home gardener & plant fetishist
Berkeley, California, USA
Hi Faith,24 Jul '08 6:13 am
no time no see! We've been off to England and then to Yosemite for a big family get together. We came Sunday in time to get ready for a wedding. On the way home from the wedding we stopped to pick up a houseguest who will stay with us most of this week while she and Lia attend a conference being held up at Cal. So we started the summer off running but will soon be able to settle into getting projects done around here. Yesterday I made my first glazed fresh peach pie and I see tons of ripe blackberries growing out along the creek.
You meanwhile seem to have found your farm not large enough for all the gardening you'd like to do? Just kidding. Obviously you have found a way to put your love of gardening to work in a way that gives a lot back and reaches out to the next generation in the process. I think that can be a big source of satisfaction in our youngish yet somewhat older years.
Hope you're enjoying your summer and it looks like you are!
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