Friday, June 4


Courtesy of Drew Levan

The Bogarden:
Community Garden at the Corner of Bogard and Rutledge


Bogarden Updates!

The Bogarden won a Charleston County Community Pride Award
An awesome rainwater harvesting system has been installed for the garden.
Tractor Supply donated 30 tomato and pepper plants!

The following veggies have been harvested in the last two weeks: green beans, jalapenos, mesclun lettuce, collards, potatoes, basil, banana peppers, sugar snap peas, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and lots of weeds :-) Pretty soon we will be overflowing with tomatoes..walk by and grab one.

Bogarden Work-Day!

This Saturday June 5, 2010 we will be out at the garden from 10-3.
Tasks: Weeding, Sign Painting, Brick laying, and some good old fashion learning about gardening.

We will break for lunch around 12... at which point we will discuss our plan for volunteers and the public beds.
(We hope to have at least one person at the garden every Saturday).

WHAT SHOULD YOU BRING?

Any gardening tools, gloves, sun screen, hats, water, potluck dish or drink (with serving utensils), a bowl/fork/spoon, a friend, random fun objects to beautify the garden, and a donation if possible (tomato cages, bamboo sections, scrap wood, outdoor paint, flowers, paint brushes, brick, and mulch are all on the want list... and money is always nice).

If you cannot stay long, please just stop by and check out how AWESOME the garden is looking :-) If you cannot make it, please reply to this email with any questions or days that you are interested in volunteering.

THANKS-
The Bogarden Group

Saturday, May 1

Tools!

Thanks to all the donations from Earth Day, LCG was able to purchase wheelbarrows and watering cans for the three gardens we are currently helping out: Bogarden, Park Circle, and the Michaux Mini-Farm.

Look for our upcoming truck fundraiser ... After many months of faithful service towing trailers full of wood and delivering soil to various community garden projects, our venerable s-10 needs a new clutch. Expect the same format as our May Day celebration, which I will soon upload photos from.

Monday, April 19

Talk at Sea Island Savory Herbs

Yesterday, our friends at Sea Island Savory Herbs invited Lowcountry Community Gardens to come speak with the great folks of the Charleston Parks Conservancy, who were at Sea Island for a lecture series.

After seeing the magic of Jim Martin teaching a container planting workshop, I perused the usual grow houses, strumming my fingers along the scents and textures of the many varieties of herbs, flowers, and vegetables at Sea Island. Always a wonderful experience.

We spoke with a few people about what we were doing and got positive responses to our work. Allston, who's been helping out with plant donations and works at Sea Island, gave a great intro talk on the need for community gardens. This is particularly true in lower income neighborhoods, where access to healthy food choices are very limited. The concept of "food deserts" is very much present in many parts of Charleston, and community gardens are one step in the right direction. We are what we eat, so the many benefits of community gardening exceed the simple joy of growing food.

Saturday, April 17

Examiner Article Highlights Lowcountry Community Gardens


It was a pleasure to meet reporter Leslee Johnson. Check out her article on the Park Circle Earth Day celebration that took place Saturday, April 17th:
Picture the possible: Earth Day Festival showcases ingenious stewardship

Earth Day at Park Circle




It was a busy and beautiful day at Park Circle for the 2010 Earth Day Festival. I'm a little surprised myself that I am posting today. Anywho, in the world of community gardening in Charleston, things are growing. The array of people who came by our table was fabulous. From kids getting excited about growing white cucumbers to lively discussions on how to best plant tomatoes, we learned a lot. All tomato plants happily found new homes and many new seeds will be sowed this spring!

Thanks to all who stopped by. We really enjoyed talking with all of you and learning about new unknown community gardens (see community garden map) and new techniques. The more people collaborate, the better. It's what makes community gardens the place of genuine interaction they are. For those of you that got tomatoes, we found a nice little primer here on how to grow them. Make sure to bury them :)

Enjoy spring and let us know about your ideas and projects. We love working together with everyone. Contact: andrea@lowcountrycommunitygardens.org

Tuesday, April 13

Elliotborough Community Garden Is A Salad Bowl


Go check out the Elliotborough Community Garden over on Line Street. It is looking fantastic. This is an amazing example of what can be grown in a tiny space.

Congrats to all the gardeners in the neighborhood.

Read more on the Charleston Parks Conservancy blog about this garden.

Thursday, April 8

Seed Grant has Arrived!


The America the Beautiful Seed Grant has come in! Over 350 packets of seeds! There is a great selection of organics, flowers, herbs, vegetables and cool heirlooms. Lowcountry Community Gardens will be passing out these seeds to Charleston area community gardens. Look for us at the Earth Day Festival in Park Circle, April 17th.

Tomato Plants Donated by Sea Island Savory Herbs


The look of the Lowcountry Community Gardens truck full of 4ft tomato plants was a sight! Our friends at Sea Island Savory Herbs on Johns Island graciously donated their surplus tomato transplants to Charleston area community gardens.
If your community garden would like to receive a dozen heirloom tomato plants, let me know by contacting me cedric@lowcountrycommunitygardens.org
Let's get these babies planted!

Tuesday, March 30

Bogarden looking fabulous



For those of you not fortunate to have gone by the Bogarden recently (Rutledge and Bogard), check it out. Progress has been made and there now is a lovely path, raised beds and more decorative lelements. I took this photo the other day:

Thursday, March 25

Soil, Wood and Seeds - The $20 garden

Soil: Bees Ferry compost, low in nitrogen, mix with mushroom compost from All-Seasons Mulch on Johns Island. Amend with composted horse manure or home compost as needed for organic matter and nitrogen.

Wood: Pick old shelves, ladders, furniture to make raised beds or containers for plants. Additional wood for raised beds can be obtained a number of other ways.

Seeds: At the end of each year, seed companies get rid of their stock and replace it with new stock. This old stock germinates just as well and many seed stores will give those old seeds away or at very low prices.

Budget: $20. Yield: priceless homegrown veggies

Springtime in the Lowcountry

Just a few tips from your local community gardens:
  • Ask for anything, return the favour with publicity and fresh produce.
  • Hyams has 30% off any bags of soil, compost that are torn. The new beds have a mix of mushroom compost and topsoil now!
  • Get your summer plants started! This week's vegetables to plant are the following: tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, corn, lettuce.
  • As an old Gullah acquaintance of mine says: "Don't plant before Easter", I am happily bending to local knowledge (and what local knowledge).

Sunday, February 28

Elliotborough Community Garden Spring Cleaning

The Elliotborough Community Garden on Line St. in downtown Charleston is having a spring cleaning event on Saturday March 6th from 10am-1pm. Join them to help out and get dibs on some recently available gardening plots. More info: 843-834-4747 or elliotboroughcommunitygarden@gmail.com

Thursday, February 11

New downtown community garden sprouting

The corner lot of Rutledge and Bogard in downtown Charleston is on the way to becoming Charleston's newest community garden!

Where is it? Google Map

Local neighborhood residents are facilitating the planning and building. If you want to get involved here are a couple of good dates:

Saturday, February 13th @ 1:30pm Clean-up day on the site to try and rake up glass, plastic, pick up dog poo, etc. We will also be mulching the corner of the yard, putting soil in a pile on the lot, and constructing a fence.

Saturday, February 20th @ 4:30pm Neighborhood cook-out (spicy black bean burgers!!!!) where we will be voting on different designs, taking suggestions for alterations of the design, and planning the first work day (where we will be building/painting boxes, putting in soil, planting the transplants, and celebrating our supremacy over other neighborhoods!).

Tuesday, February 2

All Season's Mulch saves day

Thanks to All Season's Mulch on Johns Island for donating a dump truck of their fine topsoil to Lowcountry Community Gardens!Link

Thursday, January 28

Metanoia teens excited about new mini-farm














On a crisp but beautiful afternoon, the teenagers of the Metanoia youth development program were able to work on their new mini-farm at the Noisette Foundation. Lowcountry Community Gardens was there, helping them make raised beds and plant seedlings. Built using reused lumber, donated paint and all the energy of a dozen teens, the new raised beds look beautiful and eagerly await the upcoming delivery of soil. Meanwhile, collards were seeded, ready for transplant in a few weeks. While it may have taken longer than expected for all of us to build the beds, it was a truly positive learning experience, as everyone got to measure, saw, drill, and assemble. We took a few photos to give you an idea of how much fun everybody had. To see kids get excited about planting inspires us to do everything else we do.

Tuesday, January 19

Helping out with MLK Day of Service

Yesterday was MLK Day and Lowcountry Community Gardens was out in the community working with College of Charleston students on local community garden projects. In the morning, we helped weed and plant the garden at Chicora Elementary in North Charleston. The afternoon consisted of raised bed-making at the new mini-farm on the old Navy Yard, a project of Metanoia, Americorps/VISTA, and the Noisette Foundation.

Thursday, January 14

Weather warming up for a few days

We've got a bit of rain and warmer weather on the way for the next few days. The peas that have been under cloches will be happy to get some fresh air!
No freezing temps until Sunday. Opportunities abound.

Monday, January 11

Charleston vacant plots could bring $20,000 worth of produce to area communities

A recent article on gardening a 100 square foot bed, raising $700 worth of organic produce: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Square-Foot-Gardening-Food.aspx

A quick survey (January 2010) of the potential sites identified reveals the possibility of having over 5,000 square feet of raised beds in the upper reaches of the Charleston peninsula. Look at the map for a better idea of the scale.

Currently, if the 12 vacant lots on the map were to be gardened in raised beds, together they could produce this amount of food for the needy (in just one season!):
Tomatoes 4,000 lbs
Peppers 800 lbs
Lettuce 750 lbs
Zuchini 6,400 lbs

The market value of this produce at conventional (non-organic) prices: $18,500, all-local resources

Sunday, January 3

Growing Community Gardens

7 steps to creating a sustainable community garden:

  1. Engage community in development stages: find out skills, needs, wants of neighborhood (survey)
  2. Design for social gatherings/workshops
  3. Universal design: child, elderly and handicapped-accessible
  4. Model sustainability: rainwater harvesting, renewable energy, composting
  5. Offer compost memberships to people who may not be able to directly work on garden
  6. Display art and showcase the talents of local artists
  7. Create a beautiful space