November 15th, 2014

We harvested Okinawan spinach and Turmeric this week. As usual, help at the garden was perfect to get our routine tasks completed. We have new gates on Highland to help give easy access from the alley and to our new garden meeting space that will be a perfect sanctuary for relaxing and enjoying the sounds of nature and the city in harmony. We also had the back fence repaired so it will last a bit longer.

Happenings at Violet

November 8th, 2014

We opened the garden with watering and weeding. We remade the Callalloo bed and found our the red Amarynth leaves were edible just like the green! Callalloo is a marvelous green at this time of year when the lettuces, kale and broccoli are not big enough to eat, it provides wonderful greens. They  appear in the months before the other plants are ready. Isn’t nature marvelous! Below is the harvest for today, green and red Amarynth, and Okinawan spinach.

Happenings at Violet

Green and red Amarynth (Callalloo)

Callalloo

Garden Spirit

Happenings at Highland

Coming Soon!

October 25th, 2014

Fun and beautiful art works created at the garden breakfast. The coffee from Jet City was delicious – and the two carafes were empty by the end of the event.  Wonderful nitrite free bacon in dark chocolate with pistachios tasted marvelous! There were cinnamon rolls, Italian lady fingers,  frittata, and artichoke dip. All were NUTRITIOUS! The locally grown Star Fruit ( Carambola) and Avocado were refreshing as well. Thanks to all who made our breakfast delicious and enjoyable!

Happenings at Violet

Relaxing in the shade

Garden mermaid offers carrots and grapes

Garden spirits

More garden spirits

Marilyn with painted rocks

Busy making wonderful art

Awesome creations

Art in action

Star fruit and chocolate covered bacon

A little work too

October 11th, 2014

Gardening is joyful. Now is the season of planting the delicious veggies we love to eat. Rapini aka Broccoli Raab. Tender shoots of broccoli will eventually emerge from our newly planted seedlings on Violet. We have made such rich black soil thanks to years of hard work and dedication. Our Fall growing season is off to a great start.

On Highland, we are moving into the next phase which is very exciting. Our mulch berms have been secretly composting from within; slowly and steadily building our starter soil for our first season. Soon the landscape will transform and little by little we will build another paradise for all to enjoy.

Happenings at Violet

New broccoli seedling

Straw to protect our new seedlings.

Kevin went above and beyond to cut and edge the grass at both gardens as well as a neighboring yard. Thanks so much!

September 13th, 2014

Lots of work went into the garden on Violet last weekend. Everyone pitched in to help spread the horse manure and complete our usual garden tasks. We had a visit at both locations from Bobbie who wanted to see what we were up to and how we planned our gardens. He is planning a community garden in Zephyrhills. Always great when we hear of yet another community garden project! We also had a visit from a high school student and encouraged him to bring back friends. Getting our youth into gardening can open up new doors. We were happy to have new interest.

Highland was quiet for the most part. Ellen was there to greet and Amy cut the grass. Joe’s chickens turned our compost. Bella avoided her feathered friends and the talkative dogs next door. She was determined to work without distractions!

Happenings at Violet

Turning the soil and mixing in manure.

HHS Student Volunteer

Little Eggplant

Happenings at Highland

After Joe’s chickens turned our compost, I locked them out so it could start activating

Finished mowing and took a break. Hoping we will get rid of this grass soon!

September 6th, 2014

I do not have a first hand account of the happenings on Violet from last weekend. However, from the looks of it we had a generous amount of support to help clean up the garden for our lovely Linda who so graciously lent us her land so that we could not only grow but THRIVE as a garden community.

Happenings at Violet

Tim clearing out front garden rows.

Lovely Linda cutting the grass.

Marc clearing overgrowth.

Edgar and Sophie’s daughter with the lovely squash blooms

Our turmeric.

Lovely okra!

Holy okra harvest!

Seeds to plant.

August  30th, 2014

We had so many helping hands this Saturday it was great to see the garden on Highland come alive and transform. If you have not been by, it is worth a walk through.  Thanks to Ricky, we had two new Crepe Myrtle trees planted at the front entrance. The city just repaved the road and the curbs are nice and clean. The garden is starting to look really nice.

Saturday, the day started with two new helpers and three lawn mowers. Nate and Karen teamed up to cut the grass in record time. Denise and Tim started mapping out how and where to move the compost bin. Ingrid leveled the newest mulch pile and Amy continued removing the mulch along the north tree line.

We had a nice visit from Will who recently became a member of our garden. He brought his parents who were visiting from Colorado. To our delight we learned they are active in a community garden at home too! Will gave his parents a tour of the garden on Violet as well.

I am not sure how things went at the garden on Violet. Lib you are missed! Next Saturday we will be focusing our efforts at Violet to help prepare the land for transition.

Happenings at Highland

Nate and the glorious Crepe Myrtle. Pardon the finger.

Karen mowing the north side. Nice finger!

Bella helping turn dirt around the compost bin.

Denise clearing out compost bins

Oops was that a seedling?

Tim and Denise staking out the new area for the compost bin.

Ready for the move.

Leveling out the new spot.

All mulch has been moved…. whew!

August  23rd, 2014

Thanks to all who volunteered their time to help with our routine garden tasks. Linda and Tim opened the garden on Violet while Lib is out recovering (thanks to you both!). Bella helped turn soil too. On Highland, a little bit of progress was made moving mulch. Next weekend we need all the help we can get on Highland so we can pass our final inspection.

Happenings at Violet

The tomatoes were tamed.

The lawn was mowed and compost turned.

The squash was pruned.

The over-growth was tidied up.

Peaceful rest was achieved.

Happenings at Highland

Peaceful start to the day.

Making a dent in the mulch.

Mulch is being moved from trees to make pathways.

New growth is emerging… black-eyed peas?

The Basil is thriving.

Sweet Potatoes are claiming their territory.

Spaghetti Squash seedling is looking good.

August  16th, 2014

Thanks to all who volunteered their time, their muscles, and their sweat! We harvested and completed our routine garden tasks on Violet. On Highland we made some great progress to get prepared for the city’s final inspection.

Happenings at Violet

Spaghetti Squash seedlings for both gardens.

Newly planted Spaghetti Squash seedlings.

Marilyn helping with the harvest.

Harvesting our lovely okra.

Harvesting time!

Fighting or molting?

Happenings at Highland

Before we mowed.

Denise mowing the knee high grass.

Denise happy the mowing is done!

Moved the mulch to kill grass.

Tim moving mulch so we can be compliant with the city.

Young Milkweed

Marily arrived with new seedlings.

Marilyn planting new Spaghetti Squash seedlings.

The mulch has been moved and this section is now compliant.

Wrapping up the day’s work.

Denise and Amy tidied up and called it a day.

August  9th, 2014

We had some activity at the garden on Highland but not in the form of typical garden tasks. Instead, reporters took photos and interviewed our President, Denise Moore, about the new garden. Look for the story in the Tampa Tribune this Friday.

On Violet, we had a great turnout of volunteers to help with our routine garden tasks.  We are always so thankful to everyone who commits their time to share in our labor of love. We simply have paradise at our garden! Dont believe it? We have the shirt to prove it! Come join us next Saturday to check it out for yourself. We will be starting early for the rest of the month as the heat is becoming unbearable. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces at 8am!

Happenings at Violet

Photos & colorful commentary courtesy of Libster. Read her weekly newsletter here.

See, we told you we have the shirt to prove it!

Paradise garden shoes!

Ocea and the Okra flower.

Same and Ellen along with others not pictured here helped with our tasks.

Some blooms on our eggplant vines.

This weekend’s harvest.

August  2nd, 2014

We had a lot of activity at both locations. The Rain Barrel Workshop on Highland drew a nice crowd and helping hands were on Violet to help with our routine garden tasks. Thanks to everyone!

Happenings at Violet

Photos & colorful commentary courtesy of Libster. Read her weekly newsletter here.

Diane, happy after a lovely morning learning worm maintenance, harvesting, chatting, and going home with a basket of produce – today’s special – Florida bananas. cross between a plantain and a banana.

We cut down another stem today, and there are two more coming.

Edgar and TIm taking a break. Good work was done with compost and soil enrichment.

The Compost is appreciating the addition of market rejects, and so are the hens.

Ellen watered and Cindy took care of the hens

July 12th, 2014

We had an amazing turn out last weekend. So many awesome helpers and so much great work was done at the garden on Violet. Thanks to all for your sweat, your company, and your smiles!

Happenings at Violet

July 5th, 2014

Thanks so much to our volunteers who came out this holiday weekend to help in the gardens. We had excellent participation at Violet and at Highland. We have captured the action and added captions… enjoy and tell us what you think!

Happenings at Violet

Photos & colorful commentary courtesy of Libster

The start of our day!

Wise Raven aka Berchaun rotated the rain barrels so the pipes line up and each overflows into the next. At this point we are filling them with the hose from the spring.

Cindy happily at work. She has adopted the hen house.

Marc made necessary repairs.

Marc cleared the land and tidied it ready for turning next week, and we will plant the sweet potato starts that were brought to us.

We have another great bunch of bananas hanging. The squirrels had started gnawing on the ripest one of these so we knew they were ready to pluck.

Sam, a happy worker bee

Sam harvested Callaloo. These are the fresh green heads of the new plants. We pulled the old plants which just go straight to seed at this time of year. Callaloo is a a great summer staple in the garden. Easy cooked in frypan with oil, stock whatever. Lid on , steam – max 15 min.

Denise, Linda and Ellen made great strides in garden maintenance . We keep the log book so that if we ask for a grant we will be able to show in-kind hours worked.

Happenings at Highland

Photos courtesy of Marilyn

Tim building our awesome new compost bin!

Alex helped build too!

Marilyn planting Pigeon Peas. She graciously donated seedlings to both gardens.

Pigeon Peas have been planted.

Chinese Squash seedlings have been planted.

Amy and her son get water from the well to saturate new seedlings.