Salad Bowl Garden (Davis, CA)

 

I posted about this garden a few weeks ago, but I just got some new photos in, and couldn’t resist adding them here. (You may recall the garden looked like this, not too long ago.)

This is a garden started by students a couple years ago, right in the middle of campus at UC Davis. It’s in front of the fancy Plant and Environmental Sciences building. Yep, they just tore up some lawn and planted this biointensive garden full of veggies and flowers!

The idea is that anyone can pick and eat food directly from the garden during lunch breaks, or take extra produce home with them at the end of the day. It’s a demonstration garden, a little oasis on campus, and a gathering place for visitors and volunteers.

Here are some highlights:

Red tomatoes never last long on the vine here. There are lots of green ones, though!

The garden flanks the entrance to the Plant and Environmental Sciences building. Appropriate, right?

Props to the person who can name this Asian green.

I totally love the arching trellis for this cucumber plant. (It’s made out of remesh and some wooden stakes. So easy!)

Labels are everywhere.

We installed a little, mobile fence for the exuberant watermelon patch. Every time I walk past, I fold another escaping vine back into the corral.

 

Also, check out this news video about the garden’s spring celebration. Margaret Lloyd is the garden’s rockstar coordinator.

Salad Bowl Garden

Heritage Village Community Garden (Atlanta, GA)

This is the flagship garden for the organization Community Gardens of Henry County. I’ve heard it described as “a real Southern garden.” It’s also geared towards senior gardeners (age 55+), which you can tell by some of the ways they’ve invested in infrastructure.

A corn crib was moved onto the site, creating ambiance and a place to stash supplies. Cement pathways make accessibility easy. (A more permeable surface, like decomposed granite, could be just as accessible and more ecologically friendly. I’m not sure why they opted away from that.)

A newly constructed “outhouse” is actually a nice restroom. We were duly impressed. On-site restrooms are the gold standard for community gardens.

The plots were looking good, especially for an unusually hot, dry growing season.  I should also mention that our hosts here were superbly gracious, confirming everything you hear about Southern hospitality.Thanks, ya'll!

Heritage Village Community Garden

American Community Gardening Conference 2010

I just got back from the annual American Community Gardening Conference, which was held in Atlanta, GA this year!

News to report: I did not melt under the hot, Georgia sun. I met lots of amazing, down-to-earth people building communities and gardens across the country. I visited some bonafide Southern gardens. And, I got completely soaked in a rainstorm at the annual barbeque, but it was totally worth it.

A blues band played on the porch while we ate ribs, corn, and sweet potatoes. yum!

  

Visiting the Heritage Village Community Garden, one of the Henry Gardens near Atlanta. The building is an old corn crib from the neighboring farm.

 

Okra!

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the talk by keynote speaker Yvonne Sanders Butler, who started a sugar-free policy at her school in Atlanta, and has become an author and  major activist for better nutrition (and physical exercise) in schools. Totally inspiring!