2011

Hello all!

2011 is off to a great start with our registration opening up March 15th. As of March 25 we still had 8 plots left so make sure you get signed up for this years garden if you haven't already! How do you get signed up? Drive on over to the Radford City Municipal building (where you pay your city bill) and go to the City Managers Office. Talk to the wonderful lady at the front, Juanita, and ask her for the registration form for the Community Garden (say please!). Fill out the form, right there in the office, give her $15 and a plot will be yours.

We had a great year last year with everyone who participated and I can't wait to get this year started. We are hoping to start plowing next week, but it depends on the weather. As soon as we have plowed and till the land, then we will assign the plots and the plot you are assigned will be all yours! Unfortunately the rain barrel we had from last year busted, but we are getting two more for this year! Also, this year I am going to create some sort of box where you can donate your extra produce from your plot (or even from home!) and take all extra produce to the Daily Bread here in Radford, the local soup kitchen. I will update you on the specifics of this as we get closer to the growing season.

Thank you all for making the Radford Community Garden such a success! We only hope to GROW in the future :)

-Brittany

sign

look at our beautiful sign!

(and the LUSCIOUS gardens behind it)

growing!

update

hey everyone!

the garden is going very well so far this summer. this past saturday we sold our first produce from the common plots. the green onions sold at $1/bunch of 5. none of the other produce is ready to harvest yet, but i am super excited for it to come! some of the money made from the produce we sell will go towards a small account for expenses of the garden and most of it will go towards the Radford Backpack Program which feeds local, hungry kids in need right here in Radford.

we will also be collecting any extra produce community gardeners might have and also anyone in the community! anything we don't sell at the market will go straight to the Daily Bread in Radford.

i will post pictures soon of the beautiful plots down at the garden!

-brittany

2010 spring kick off pics

painting signs

Barry Robinson giving the Gardening Basics workshop

soil test demonstration

success!

thank you to everyone who came out Saturday to our kick off! It was a great success. I think about 50 people came! Barry Robinson and two master gardeners came and gave a wonderful tutorial on soil testing and gardening basics.

Actually, because of the great success, I would love to start planning for another get together and invite Barry to come again. He said he was a little rushed because of other obligations that day and would love to come back and do another workshop once people start having veggies coming in! He suggested having an "eating meeting" and we could have a potluck dinner together! I think it sounds wonderful and I hope you can make it to this. I will let you know when I start planning this.

We have filled all 20 plots (yay!) and we have actually started a waiting list. Once the waiting list gets to atleast 8, we will plow some more plots. So get on over to the city manager's office in the City Municipal building and get on the waiting list if you're interested! We have 3 so far and need 5 more. Jim said he would like to make the cut off this Friday, so you better get over there quick!

Again, I'm so excited the kick off went so well and I thank you so much for coming and being a part of the community garden!

-Brittany

kick off

so we've got the Spring Kick Off coming up in a few days on Saturday!! I hope you can come! So far here is the schedule of events:

11am: Master Gardeners will perform a soil test demonstration and then the Gardening Basics workshop

12pm: Sign painting for your garden plot

11am-2pm: Seedlings will be for sale & Master Gardeners will be around to answer any gardening questions!

Also be sure to check out the kick off of the Radford Farmer's Market on the same day. They have a bunch of fun things going on!

As of Friday we have 4 plots left at the gardens. We have decided that if we have more people that want a plot after these last 4 are taken, we will start a waiting list. When the waiting list gets to 8 plots, we will bring the plow man back down to the garden and plow up some more plots!

Let me know if you have any questions or comments! bgerald@radford.edu

-Brittany

hunger

Hey everyone,

This year we are really trying to encourage everyone to give their extra produce to those who need it. I didn't have much growing last year, but I sure had plenty of zucchini's coming up and I promise there are people who would love to have some fresh veggies! Please don't let them go to waste!

One way we will be supporting the local food pantries is by having a few "common plots". These plots will be maintained by volunteers; anyone is welcome to come and pick a few weeds and help us maintain these! The produce grown in these plots will then be sold at the Radford Farmer's Market on Saturday's. The money made each week will be donated to the Backpack Program that a group of students at RU are starting at one of the local schools here in Radford. (Every $10-$15 pays for one child to have food for the weekend who would otherwise go hungry till they came back to school on Monday!!) The extra produce we picked, but did not sell will go straight to the Daily Bread, or other food pantries. Also, we will place a basket out on Fridays that anyone can place their extra produce in that we will try to sell or give to the food pantry.

Hunger is real, right here in Radford and I would love to see our gardeners come together and help fight this preventable issue.

Don't forget to come to the Kick Off Event next Saturday April 17th 11am! I will be posting a schedule soon of the events that will be going on! Also-this is the same day as the Radford Farmer's Market kick off and we will be there in the morning selling some of our seedlings! Hope to see you there!

-Brittany

wildflower walk

Pathways of Radford is co-sponsoring a wildflower walk in Wildwood Park this Saturday April 3 at 9am! Meet Gary Cote’ at the Main Entrance to Wildwood Park(the intersection of Grove and Main Street, by the bank). Information can be found on the Pathways for Radford website http://www.radfordpl.org/wildwood/

Also check this out! Jamie Oliver's TED award. Very cool!

-Brittany

seedlings

I have a few seedlings starting to sprout! I have started tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, squash and lavendar so far. (the maters and cukes have started sprouting!). I also bought some more seeds today and will (hopefully) be planting them tomorrow. I will post a few pictures after they grow a little more! These will be sold during our Spring Kick off Event April 17th, 11am and also on campus during the Earth Day Festival.

We still are working on some improvements for the garden this year and I will let you know as soon as they are for sure.

Hope to see you April 17th!

-Brittany

spring

Happy Spring everyone! I am getting so excited about the garden this year. The kick off event is really starting to come together and I really hope the community takes advantage of all that will be going on! One thing I don't think I've mentioned yet is that this year we will have two rain barrels available. These will be hooked up to the gutter system on the Tanger building. These will be a great addition to the garden this year.

Don't forget to go by the Radford City Manager's office and sign up for your plot! As of yesterday we have 10 already filled up. $10, an address, and a phone number is all you need!

Get outside and enjoy this beautiful day!

-Brittany

4 weeks

Just 4 weeks (and 2 days) away from the Radford Community Garden Spring Kick Off! We'll be picking up a donation from Lowe's of wood to be used for personalized signs for each plot. Students will be volunteering their time to come and paint them for you if you don't want to paint it yourself!

We also will be selling seedlings of various veggies and other fun things will be going on as well.

Please know that anyone is invited to this event. We hope to invite the whole community in this area to get excited about gardening by way of this event. It is also a great opportunity to talk to the Master Gardner's and listen to what they have to say!

I have recently created a page on facebook for the Radford Community Garden so be sure to become a fan to stay up to date on everything!

-Brittany

sign up

Wondering how to sign up for a plot? Fill out the application and turn in the $10 fee at the City Managers office in the Municipal Building. Better do it quick because we are accepting applications based on first come, first serve and we are currently planning on having only 20 plots. The applications will be available starting on Monday. If you are part of a University club, then please send me a message and you can coordinate through me.

-Brittany

getting started

Hey everyone! I know it's a little early to be talking about gardening but we have been busy getting ready for the upcoming season. Jim Graham and I (Brittany Gerald), have gotten the okay to expand last years garden space. This means we can acccomodate more gardeners! Jim and I will be working hard to get the word out to Radford to make sure we include everyone interested.

One exciting thing we are planning is our first annual kick off event. This event will be held on Saturday, April 17th at 11am at the community garden site (across from Dudley's Landing, next to Tanger Outfitters, also known as the old D.G.'s driving range). This will be the first day you can begin planting cool weather crops if you would like to. We have invited a few Master Gardeners from the area to come and they will be hosting a "Gardening Basics" workshop! I hope this will encourage some beginner level gardeners to come out and try gardening for their first time. I also hope to have a time to ask the M.G.'s any gardening questions. This will be a great time to come and learn more about gardening in a fun and easy way! We will also have a few other fun things going on that day. I will keep you updated as things become set in stone.

Jim and I are very excited to help make this years garden even better than last years. If you have any questions or concerns you can post to this blog or request to be sent my email. I hope you will stay tuned to all that we will be doing this year and hope you will join us in all the fun!

-Brittany

garden pics from '09

enjoy some pics from last years community garden!

plans are underway for this years community garden folks! keep checking back here for updates and information!