In Memoriam Rick Don Coffey

UPDATE: Memorial Service for Rick at Parkway United Methodist Church (site of the garden as well) on Tuesday, April 13th at 7PM

Rick Don Coffey was killed in an accident on Friday April 2, 2010 while riding his bike at Sample and Military Trail.

Rick has been a part of our garden project from the beginning. He dug, planted, cleared, watered and found some sense of belonging and purpose.

Rick also attended church at Parkway, including Bible study and other gatherings.

He will be missed by all of us. We will post relevant information on arrangements as it becomes available.

Black Hen has arrived

Old fashioned Black Hen organic fertilizer (otherwise known as dried chicken poo)– Good for fruit trees now that warm weather is sort of here.– Old time farmers would probably scratch their heads and say, “You had to buy this stuff?”

Tedder Elementary Field Trip 3/23/10

On a gorgeous Tuesday morning almost 100 2nd graders ambled the few blocks from their school to the garden to follow up on last year’s visit and learn new things as well. This visit included

• Sunflower circle revisit with new seed planting and explanation about what the cold winter did to the sunflower plants.
• Ladybugs! — of course
• A visit to the under development natural playground
• Healthy Orange wedge snacks
• And Last but not Least “The Good Bug Bad Bug Show” with ringmaster Mary and bugs from around the garden (a huge success)!

Stay tuned for more developments, and if you haven’t already, stop by for a visit any Saturday.

Green Beans for Pantry- Workshop for the Community

Check out what’s starting to grow like crazy in the food pantry plots, green beans! Tasty local organic green beans for hungry folks who visit the Saturday food pantry.

As a point of comparison check out similar items at a local grocer: local, but not organic and priced beyond what many can afford.

Also, don’t forget our Leadership Workshop this Saturday, March 20th:

should be a great time of brainstorming, learning and growing together. If you haven’t signed up yet go to the “Leadership Workshop” tab for details and to sign up.

Great sunny workday on Saturday

Thank you marvelous volunteers! What a great day of projects and sunshine at the garden!

Remember the work list?

Everything got accomplished:

1) The new Food Pantry plot was dug and de-rocked (2 bins of rocks!)

2) Banana circles got remulched and re-sweet potatoe ized (yes not a real verb but you get the idea)

3) New Sunflowers and Red Mexican Sunflowers got planted

4) More configurations of the rain barrel system

5) All kinds of heavy trash got cleaned up from the far corner of the property

6) New flowers were planted bringing dappled colors into shaded corners

7) A Citrus tree was planted in honor of a new baby girl at Parkway Church

8 ) Two sub-tropical blueberry bushes are the newest members of the Food Forest

Last, but not least, everybody brought fresh produce to feed hungry families at both Parkway food pantry and the Blessings Pompano Beach.

If you haven’t already take a look at the Flickr pictures in the right column, we just posted a bunch of pictures from the big day.

Stay tuned for the next one!!

Rainy Friday, yes, but Saturday is supposed to be sunny

If Saturday is sunny please plan on joining us by working on some great garden projects.

Certainly the plants are well watered!

Volunteer Workday at Parkway Tedder Community Garden: Mar 13th 2010

This Saturday promises to be a great morning of hard work and fun with an unusual food drive and lots of great outdoor garden expansion projects!

Time: 9:00 AM to 12Noon, Saturday March 13th 2010
Place: Parkway Tedder Community Garden, Deerfield Beach FL

Food Drive: Fresh Produce Donation for local food pantries
Bring a pound of your favorite produce and share nutritious food with those in need who seek help at the Parkway United Methodist food pantry (open every Saturday morning).  If there is more fresh food than the pantry can handle our partners at Blessings Food Pantry in Pompano Beach (open 5 days a week) will be happy to distribute the rest on Monday morning.  Blessings has already distributed fresh greens from the Parkway-Tedder Garden to those in need thankful for the ‘fresh’ surprise.

Outdoor garden workday projects for March 13th:

1) Plant Green Beans in Food Pantry Plots

2) Divide out and replant baby banana trees to expand the Banana circles

3) Plant new sunflowers in the Sunflower patch
4) Plant sweet potatoes around Banana circles and around Sunflower patch

5) Stake trees that winter winds blew down

6) Weed and mulch garden paths

What to bring:
1 lb (or more) of your favorite fresh produce.
Proper work clothes— see our “workdays” tab on the website for specifics:

Workdays

See you in the Garden!

Tea in the Garden- A well watered success: part 2

When last we wrote, the rain had poured, stopped, and a rainbow had come out!  At 5:30pm the sun showed up and so did Tea in the Garden guests.  Hesitantly at first, wondering if they would find anything going on in the Garden…folks beamed when they saw the tiki torches and smiles grew wider seeing the tables laden with home-baked goods.

What a great evening! The Tea in Garden succeeded on all counts, showing off the Garden and Food Forest, raising funds, and most importantly bringing people together.  All of you are invited to “Put Down Roots” and participate! The next Volunteer Workday is Saturday March 13 from 9am-12pm; bring a pound of your favorite produce to contribute to the Food Pantry, and stay to work on a project!

Over $2,000 was raised thanks to all of you who came to the event!  If you would like to contribute financially, Tea in the Garden is still accepting donations:   Paypal Link

Scroll down for a few more pictures or visit the flickr site, and…See you in the Garden!

the promised rainbow!

Tables for all ages

And the Garden glowed with tiki torches and white lights

Safari Tea!

Some Introductions, Explanations and Invitations to “Put down Roots”

Tea in the Garden- A well watered success: part 1

Things looked a little iffy at 3:30 pm on Saturday the 27th, the afternoon of the big event.  The wind picked up and weather radar showed bands moving through the whole region–then the rains really began! For a little while it looked like the party would be indoors with perhaps a few peeks outside under Glenn’s blue tent:

Among the garden crew there was less than a fraction of a second’s thought to cancel, so plans were made to have Tea in the Garden outdoors under the overhang with some overlap inside the education wing of the building.

Meanwhile the insane buzz of activity was ongoing in kitchen, the show was on, and the scones, turnovers, breads (all homemade), tea sandwiches, starfruit, and homemade, fresh-squeezed lemonade were sorted and arranged.

Then just a little after 5:00 the rain eased and the sky lightened, threatening sun (yay!)…

Setup outside went into high gear

The Sun came out!!!!

Tables were loaded with home baked goodies and our awesome youth wait staff were prepped.

Stay tuned, more stories and pictures on their way!!!!

Meanwhile be checking out some  Flickr pics (right hand side)– more on their way as well!

Tea in the Garden- Buy your tickets now!

Here’s the official ad:

Here’s the link for Tickets

Tickets

PLEASE NOTE: TICKET PRICES HAVE NOT GONE UP, DUE TO EARLY TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH THE WEBSITE WE ARE KEEPING THEM THE SAME AS ON OUR OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.

See you in the Fruit Forest!