June 5, 2009 - Following Juma a 'big' workday was planned. Under the direction of Kareema Shahid (GreenEarth Living & Habitat), a group of 14 ventured to SOF to prep the ground for planting. The lawn was cut, the fence work continued, beds were put together and laid in position. An all-out effort to get SOF ready for seeding. By the end of the day, SOF began to look like a garden. You could see the 'fruits' of our labor beginning to sprout. Our neighbors once again came out to offer support.
Our garden will probably be one of the most viewed in St. Louis. It sits alongside highway 70 where over 100,000 travelers and commuters ride daily. While we were working on SOF later in the day, rush hour began to pack the highway. Cars were moving at a snail's pace. As drivers passed our corner and saw a bunch of folks digging and building, we anticipated what they were thinking. One gentlemen, who was on the highway, turned around to stop by. He said, he saw us while he was on the highway and thought, 'they must be building a garden'. He offered to donate some seeds to the project. Sis. Kareema collected his name as she has begun compiling a visitor's book.
Thanks and Blessings to all those who lent a hand!
June 7, 2009 - Once the beds were down and pushed flush to the ground, the next step was to begin adding the dirt. Sis. Kareema directed the group in filling the beds with compost (the city delivered 2 truck loads of compost...for free!). We first laid newspaper as the base in the beds. The newspaper needed to be layered about an inch thick. Once the newspaper was laid, we began to add a layer of compost to the bed. We divided the work so that as one group prepared the bed with newspaper the other group filled the bed with compost. The team worked well together in getting this done. After the beds were layered with compost, the next step was to thoroughly water them. Our neighbor, Mr. Townsend offered to run a water hose from his house to the garden to complete this task. But all morning we were racing against some heavy rain clouds. Once we layered the last bed, rain from heaven came to water our garden. Well done!
June 12, 2009 - Garden Help ASAP! A huge delivery of peat moss, potting mix, vermiculite, etc. was being delivered to the site. The delivery company called and said they would be early...not good. Our HF coordinator, Basiyr Rodney jumped into action putting out an all-call for assistance. He managed to gather enough support to have the truck unloaded. Now we have the rest of the 'stuff' to complete the beds for seeding.
Per Kareema Shahid - "We added vermiculite and peat moss to all the beds. We even added more compost to the "Potato Patch" bed by the neighbors fence. I actually planted a few organic potato sprouts and some organic onions in one half the bed. The other side of the bed needs more of everything. We also added more compost and gridded off one of the other beds...so you can see how they will all look. Sis. Fatirah set up the rain barrel so it can catch any rain we get over the next few days. It is now imperative that we have ready access to water. The "Potato Patch" will need water everyday."
June 14, 2009 - GreenEarth Living & Habitat sent the team a long list of "ASAP" work to be done. We are close but still have a few more long days of work to reach completion. Gearing up for the 'home-stretch'.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment