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Hi Folks, check out our new website and catch on details about

Our Next Workday, Saturday August 21st

The Fruitful Field– Parkway Tedder Community Garden and Food Forest

As our garden grows and expands its reach on Food, Community, Education, and Creation Care we have a new name and a new website.

Update your social networking tools and we will see you there!

Summer Watermelon Harvest

Summer heat and occasional downpours are working at growing watermelons and greens in the Fruitful Field. The watermelons are growing fast and beautiful and are from the planting activity of the Tedder 1st graders on a spring field trip.

The sliced watermelon was served at the weekly Sunday community breakfast– every Sunday at 9:00 at the Parkway United Methodist Church.

July 10th Workday–Pruning the Forest–Out with invasives! It was a great day!

Update: Great success with other 20 volunteers in wonderful sweltering weather!

This nice little tree frog was moved to a new tree home!

When last we talked about Workdays we shared some of the pictures of our fierce efforts at getting out the trees we call invasives. Once again we are inviting you to be part of sending more of these trees to the chipper and the dumpster.

Why the fixation on invasives you ask?   The trees are not bad in and of themselves but they have occupied and crowded out the native species, taking over sections of the property.  It’s not personal but…. they have to go so we can plant native and fruit-bearing trees:

• Native Bald Cypress and develop a really cool wetlands
• Native Pines bounded by stylish Native Sea Grapes
• More Sub-tropical and Tropical Fruit Trees and Food Production Areas

Bring your clips-trimmers-loppers-shears-pruners and a friend to help. Join us as we cut, clean, and beautify! Maximize hot summer weather and get great things done!!! You know it’s good for you and good for creation!

Where: Parkway Tedder Community Garden & Food Forest, at Parkway UM Church, 100 NE 44th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL

When: Saturday July 10th from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Expect: Snacks, cold water and a feeling of accomplishment in the Garden

Bring: Work Gloves, Sun protector, closed-toe shoes, chainsaws and fierce cutting tools (if you have them and know how to use them).  Some lighter-load WorkDay activities are ongoing and available too.

Questions? email  flavio(at)thefruitfulfield.org

Native Flowers

Here at The Fruitful Field — Parkway Tedder Community Garden– the rains are slowly starting to get more regular and the plants love the warm weather, growing as fast as water and food allow them to.

That means that invasives like the Brazilian Pepper (also called Florida holly) and the Australian pines (nothing against these countries– just these plants) are growing fast too– so soon a July work day for more chainsaw and brush cleaning fun.

Watch this space for the details!

Meanwhile enjoy some recent photos of our Florida Native Plants in full flower. Check out Flickr for more flower pics as well.

Work Day on Saturday the 29th: a great one!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Work Day!  The hot sunny weather was tolerable as the battle of invasives really went forward.

The day saw new faces (awesome!), chainsaws of all sorts and in all sorts of repair, Japanese machetes, saws, crimpers, oversized wagons and heavy duty work gloves–combined with lots of water/food/and conversation.  The a big chunk of Brazilian pepper got hacked down and readied for chipping.  Fewer invasives gives room for new trees and a possible wetland in the future.

Not to be left out our super engineer Glenn continued connecting up our state of the art rain catching system with final touches on the tubing system which may send up to 10,000 gallons a minute off the roof and into our irrigation system.

(There are more great pictures on Flickr just click on the sidebar to see the whole set)

On a fun nature note the day also saw the arrival of feathered volunteer– Basil the parakeet who blew in on the wind and wanted to rescued.  Cute bird!

Work Day Saturday May 29th, Parkway Tedder Community Garden & Food Forest

Varroom, Vrroom– Start your engines!  (Chain saw engines, that is!)

Come see if your chain saw is ready for this year’s active hurricane season and take care of invasive trees while you’re at it!

Prefer taking out trees instead of planting them? Then this Work Day is for you! Join us at the Garden and Food Forest with your chain saw, gloves, protective eye & foot gear (yes), and a hat and let’s see how many invasives we can send to the dumpster.

If you would rather take care of baby trees, don’t despair, lots of new tree seedlings still need your help!

Come check out all the new growth since last year, inspect the rain barrels and gardens, haul the invasives, and sweat it out for a morning–you know it’s good for you!

Where: Parkway Tedder Community Garden & Food Forest, at Parkway UM Church, 100 NE 44th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL

When: Saturday May 29th from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm

What: Gloves, sun protector, closed-toe shoes, your hat, and a chain saw if you have one and know how to use it properly

Expect: Snacks, cold water and feeling of accomplishment in the Garden

Lunch will be provided

Questions? email  flavio(at)thefruitfulfield.org

Buying Trees at Broward County’s Rare Fruit and Vegetable Council

From Mary Pittman– one of garden’s amazing volunteers and a member of Parkway United Methodist Church.

Last Saturday (5/15/10) was my 2nd trip down to the semi-annual plant sale at the Broward County Rare Fruit and Vegetable Council in South West Ranches. It’s a long way to go but well worth the trip if you’re looking for an out of the ordinary fruit tree shopping experience. By the time I arrived, the crowd was already there. It’s in a beautiful organic smelling area of our county with spacious yards and rich soil good for growing anything tropical. The sale is managed by knowledgeable club members that are eager to answer questions and provide advice. The fruit trees are arranged in mapped rows(maps available upon request) attached to irrigation drip lines with a comfortable shade canopy for shoppers. Other offerings include fresh baked fruit breads, fruit sodas, jams, jellies, orange blossom honey from the bees there at RFVC and Black Hen fertilizer. They even have a composting toilet and thanks to Carina I was allowed to use it. It’s quite a mansion with it’s own shower and flush procedure! The plants were selling fast  but Parkway Tedder Community Garden added 2 Mamey Sapotes, a Loquat, Cacao(chocolate bean), Indian Jujube, Black Sapote(chocolate pudding fruit) and Atemoya. By the time all this was loaded in my Jeep I was craving a chocolate bar to go with my guava soda! It’s a garden to see, as well, with mature trees like the ones they sell that they use for air layering then grafting and probably some experimenting. There are so many ideas for PTG to learn from and construct in a north east county way. It is truly an amazing place and I will certainly go back in Oct. for the fall sale.  Care to join me?

Mary Pittman

Tedder Elementary– 4th and 1st Graders- Planting Pines, Worms, Lady bugs, Watermelon

This last week has been hopping with activity as kids from Tedder Elementary are making it a regular part of their learning circuit.

We’ve had a great new addition to our volunteer team– Chloe Lyon and friends– for the last two weeks Chloe and 3 of her friends have been helping out with the eager, curious, and rowdy students from Tedder elementary school– a school just 3 blocks away from the garden,.

On May 7th sixteen 5th graders planted 26 south florida slash pines (wow was it humid out!), played with  ladybugs and chomped on oranges.

On May 12th the whole first grade (over 100 energetic kids) came ambling across the garden to plant watermelon seeds, learn about the parts of a tree, and of course work with lady bugs and worms.  Don’t forget the snack with the all important orange slices and as a seasonal treat– watermelon.

3rd Grade Visit- Worm Towers! More Adult Volunteers Needed

On a beautiful warm South Florida day about one hundred 3rd graders from Tedder elementary came bouncing through the gates to enjoy over an hour’s worth of learning and fun at the Garden and Fruit Forest.

As you can see from the pictures below, today’s big project was “worm towers”.  It’s a way of building a home base for worms to work up a patch of earth. The plastic tube has holes drilled in the bottom and regular food and water are dropped down the tube to give the worms a safe and regular place from which to work.  Over time their activity will make the surrounding area a better place for both plants and worms! If you want more information please take a look on Youtube for some videos on the process.

Our garden has got a great problem: we have so much interest from the school for field trips that we NEED MORE ADULT VOLUNTEERS .

If you have an occasional spare morning to make a positive difference in the lives of kids, please help us out!!  On field trip days it means being  at the garden around 8:30am on the morning of the visit, doing some prep work with us, school kids arrive around 9:00 AM and everything is done by 10:15 AM.

Interested in volunteering? Email Wayne :  wayneboswell (at) mac.com and be part of acquainting kids with things green and healthy!