For those of you who may not know, I was chosen as one of the Marion County Neighborhood Food Champions for the 2021 cohort! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this.
I kept telling myself that I needed to get back to writing in my blog but I believe I've shared before how much I struggled during my pandemic lockdown. As one of my students said, I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel and I'm pretty positive it's not the train! I am fully vaccinated, my doctors are approving cautiously reentering public, I'm loving that I'm going to get to see my grandkids in person...those are some of my short people in the picture above! In a few weeks, I'll even get to go to my new office on campus...I haven't even seen it yet!
Let me tell you about Gram's Gardens! When I wrote my Food Champion proposal, I had broken the plan into four parts that would happen over multiple years until the plan was fully in place.
*Phase one was expanding the donation garden.
*Phase two is to create a handicap accessible (including wheelchairs) gardens. There will be seating areas and accessible pathways.
*Phase three includes community plots that will be available to those without an area to garden (or want to learn from/with others while doing it), the donation for these plots will be low cost and we have supporters lined up who will help cover that donation if someone is in need of that. The goal of this phase is that those who want to garden, can regardless of budgets.
*Phase four is multi-faceted. It includes an educational area so children from schools, scouts, etc. can learn about how to grow things. It will also include volunteering so that elderly or shut ins who are unable to get to a food pantry/distribution can have it delivered to them. This will allow volunteers who need community service hours to get them, an example of that being my son's school requires students to complete so many community service hours in order to graduate. As a non-profit, we can sign off on those hours.
I'm so happy to share that we've expanded the donation garden to between 2000 and 2100 sq. ft. Last year we donated over 500 pounds of fresh produce (less than 24 hours between picking and in the hands of the recipient) and our goal this year is 1000 pounds!
We're also able to announce that our timeline on the handicap accessible garden which will include the educational area has been moved up! There is a Boy Scout who had his Eagle Scout project cancelled because of CoVid restrictions who is now taking this project on. If you are so inclined to help him, please watch for a fundraising link for this as he has to do some fundraising as part of the project requirements. We've been able to expand on how this will look as well. There will be a raised bed (on the ground) that will be for flowers as I really want to include fresh flowers in the deliveries to the elderly and shut ins just to brighten their day. We also have an artist friend who is going to help us include art in this garden, whether that is a changing art installation/exhibit or even a little library type of set up with art kits for children...watch for pictures of this! This area, once it is available, will be experimental this season to work out any kinks in the set up. We plan for it to be fully functional next season!
One major roadblock we are currently facing is in the form of a giant tree. This tree is becoming the bane of my existence right now....
I'd like to point out that my husband is 6'4" tall. I really, truly, honestly, dislike this tree! If shading my garden area isn't enough, it's now been hit by lightening and really needs to come down before any more damage happens to it. We'll be looking at possible grants to help with the removal of this tree.
Anybody want any wood? LOL
We'll be setting up "work days" to help get the garden ready and planted. Sunday, we're finishing the building of the final three raised beds in the donation garden for lettuces, spinach, and peas, filling them and laying out the weed barrier fabric over the rest of the garden. I'll keep y'all posted about work days if you'd like to join us for planting or harvesting as the season progresses!
Thank you to those who've helped and supported my idea to do this. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish!
Please, feel free to hold me accountable for writing more consistently and to provide updates on Gram's Gardens!
Dee 🎕
