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By Frank Ruggiero
To everything there is a season.
The Leola Street Community
Garden is now in its third season. Photo submitted |
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This is something for which the Leola Street Community Garden
is particularly thankful.
As winter enters its final throes, the garden is starting its
season with monthly workshops, each with their own focus.
The next is scheduled for April 26, the topic of which is soil
preparation and fertility, hosted by Richard Boylan of the Watauga
County office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, from
2 to 4 p.m.
On May 10, community gardeners can celebrate Mother’s Day
with the Mother’s Day Plant Sale, which garden founder and
coordinator Matt Cooper said serves as a fundraiser for the garden,
which is operated under the umbrella of the Appalachian Coalition
for Just and Sustainable Communities (ACJSC), a nonprofit organization.
Cooper invites landscapers, nursery owners and residents from
Watauga and surrounding counties to bring their plants for sale
to the May 10 event.
“It’s a win-win,” he said, “and it’s
one way for landscape nursery people to get out in the public
and be seen.”
Cooper encourages participants to bring fruit-bearing bushes,
bulbous flowers and landscaping plants. This particular day is
also a summer planting day, when community gardeners can begin
to plant their summer crops.
On June 14, a workshop will be held on success planting, a method
of planting that yields crops every week, “making your garden
as productive as possible,” Cooper said. Also that day, gardeners
can attend a session on harvesting, summer mulching and feeding,
hosted by Boylan from 2 to 4 p.m.
On July 12, there will be a harvest celebration, followed by a
workshop on fall planting to discuss which crops grow at what
time of year.
A clean-up day will be held Aug. 16, during which gardeners can
arrange their gardens for the community garden’s third annual
fundraiser.
A workshop on cover crops will be held Sept. 13, hosted by Boylan
from 2 to 4 p.m. Cooper explained that a cover crop is a technique
to increase viability of soil. Popular varieties include clover
and vetch, and Cooper said such crops add nutrients to the soil.
“Each one just kind of does its own thing, so that’s
why Richard’s coming to explain all that,” he said.
“You typically want to sow your cover crops in the fall,
and it also helps out with erosion for farmers near streams or
slopes.”
On Oct. 18, gardeners will put their gardens to bed in preparation
for winter.
The season will conclude with a winter bulb gardening session
on Nov. 8, “and that’ll include planting things like
garlic, shallots and other onion family plants,” Cooper said,
“and bulbous flowers, too, if anyone’s wanting to put
flowers in.”
This marks the garden’s third season, having been established
in September 2005, when the Boone Town Council agreed to lease
the area off Leola Street to Cooper and his organization at the
time. The garden has since joined the ACJSC.
There are 30 plots total, but Cooper said there is more space
to create more garden beds, emphasizing, “We’re not
running out.”
Plots are available in three sizes, with small at 10 by 15 feet
for $20, medium at 20 by 14 feet for $30, and large at 20 by 30
feet for $40. The membership fee accounts for a year’s worth
of gardening, and Cooper said the garden provides seeds for free,
including collards, parsley, carrots, lettuce, beets and tomatoes.
To sign up, those interested should visit the garden during one
of the workdays. Cooper said about 15 people have already expressed
interest for this season.
The Leola Street Community Garden is located at 207 Leola St.
in Boone. For more information, call Cooper at (828) 773-5893,
email seeinglifenow@yahoo.com or visit www.leolastreetgarden.org
on the Web.
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