Our Beautiful Native Plant Bed

Native Plant Bed

Have you been enjoying this new addition to the garden?  Thanks to a grant from Lowes facilitated by Cindy Baxley and beautiful plantings by both Cindy and Laura Margadonna, the native plant bed is looking great! It is drought tolerant so should do very well through this hot summer.

 

 

Wonderful Potluck Event Saturday, May 23rd

Potluck 1Potluck 2

We had about 27 people gather inside at the church for great food and wonderful fellowship in spite of the storms!  Carolyn’s blackberry cobbler was a great hit and there were some dishes made from fresh ingredients from the garden such as salad and green beans!  If you missed this one be sure and make the next one.

The sun is actually popping out a little so those tomatoes may start ripening after all. If you haven’t checked out the berry beds be sure and take a look.  They are gorgeous.

Hope to see you soon at the garden and maybe you it won’t be in an ark!

Beautiful Blooms!

Larkspur 2 2015

The larkspur is blooming beautifully at the garden and the bees and butterflies are loving it!  Thanks Laura Margadonna for caring for our flower beds and the herb bed. You do a great job.

Berry Patch is Blooming!

Thanks to T.C. and Carolyn Rice for our wonderful berry patch that is bountiful with blooms!  We should get a good yield when they are ready to harvest soon.  The garden is looking beautiful and we are getting some very beneficial rains.  We will have an all gardener work day on Saturday, April 25th so we look forward to seeing everyone out in the garden that day.

Berries April 2015 _

First Harvest and Great End of Month Workday

Harvest 3-28-15 25.5 lbs Wagon loaded Harvest 3-28-15 25.5 lbs work day 3-28-15 (2)Saturday, March 28th we had a beautiful day for our end of month work day.  At one time there were 26 people working like busy bees in the garden.  We began by harvesting 25.5 lbs. of greens and cabbages for the Food Share program at Aldersgate Methodist Church. This was our first harvest of this year and you can see we had an abundance of greens  Can you imagine how thrilled those seniors were to get this organic produce?  And, some got deliveries from our smiling student volunteers.  It was a treat for all.  The student volunteers dug a lot of Bermuda and laid mulch in the aisles.

Thanks to Steve Barrett, the water was repaired and many gardeners took advantage of the beautiful day to get their beds planted for Spring.

Successful Orientation and Workday

Workday 3-21-15

Saturday, March 21st was one of the first days of Spring and we had a wonderful turnout for the kickoff orientation and workday in the garden.  We had a great group of students from Hebron High School who were participating in the school district’s Big Event to volunteer throughout the community. They cleaned out the pergola beds, placed mulch and weeded the aisles and also helped beautify the rose bush beds at the church.  Many gardeners, both new and existing, worked to get their bed plantings started.

Spring Kickoff and Orientation Meeting

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RESCHEDULED DATE – Mark your calendars — Saturday, March 21st at 10:00 am in a portable at the garden we will have our annual kickoff/orientation meeting for all gardeners.  We’ll have refreshments and lots of important information to help you get your gardening season off to a great start.  We’ll have the seeds that Strong’s Nursery donated for you to choose from and please bring any seeds you would like to share.  Make a list of any questions you may have for the garden board members. This also our first end of month “All Gardener Work Day” and we’ll have student volunteers joining gardeners to work hard to get the garden ready for the season. So, bring your work gloves and put in some time before or after the orientation.  We look forward to seeing you there.

A Touching Dedication of The Giving Garden Veterans Memorial Pergola and Garden!

Ribbon Cutting

Leaders cut a ribbon November 15 at the dedication of the new Veterans Memorial Garden at the Giving Garden of Carrollton . Left to right are former Aldersgate UMC pastor Woody Weilage, Mayor Pro Tem Bob Garza, Aldersgate UMC Pastor Lyle Benson, Marshall Reeves of Christian Community Action (CCA), Giving Garden Board members Martha Grizzel and Willie Lane, Tim Herrel, American Legion and VFW, Cathy Henesey of Keep Carrollton Beautiful, and Kevin Falconer, Councilmember Place 5.

PhotographerIt was a cold and blustery day on Saturday, as nearly 100 community leaders, veterans, church members, sponsors, garden members, and others gathered for the dedication of the new Veteran’s Memorial Garden. Willie Lane, Giving Garden Board member, explained that the new veteran’s memorial garden was made possible by The Home Depot Foundation which provided the grant to build the new pergola, that will provide much needed shade and a meeting place for the garden. Other speakers, including Mayor Pro Tem Bob Garza and Marshall Reeves of the CCA , participated in recognizing the veterans and also, the Giving Garden for its contribution to the Community.

On behalf of all veterans, Tim Herrel, of the American Legion and VFW, officially accepted the dedication and spoke to the sacrifice made by veterans and the freedom we have in America because of these efforts.

At the end of the program everyone really appreciated the hot chocolate and coffee provided by Keep Carrollton Beautiful and the delicious cake provided by Kroger.

Mark your calendars!

By now you may have received the evite for the dedication of the Giving Garden Veterans Memorial Garden and pergola.  If you did not receive an evite see the link below and be sure and call to RSVP.  Can’t wait to see you there!

The Giving Garden Dedication Flyer 2014

We love our student volunteers!

Throughout the last school year and through this summer we have been blessed with great student volunteers!  Here’s a shout out to all of them with a great big THANKS and we hope to see you again this Fall!

We appreciate Lisa Ingalls’ efforts to coordinate the student volunteers with the high school counselors and those gardeners who helped supervise their work days.Brittany and Jin 8-9-14Student volunteers 2-22-14