Monthly Archives: August 2009

2009-07: Liberated

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We don’t have a name except ‘yard’, but if I gave it one, I would call it “Liberated’ because it used to be all surrounded by chain link fence and nasty sheds. We have worked for approx. 20 months on the garden, the photos show the before and after transformation. Our long term goal is privacy provided by plants because the house is on a corner lot. Two main features are a rock patio where red dirt used to be and a rock wall built entirely of ‘side of road pick up’ rocks. There are rain chains too, which a lot of people ask us about. They’re a great alternative to running spouts down nice wood features on the front porch.

My garden gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel like gardening even more.

Event Extras: We’re opening up first floor of the house to strollers for walk-through tours, complete with a display of before and after pictures of garden and house. We’ll also answer any questions and offer informal talks about our experiences in creating ‘renovated’ house features, building rock back patio and yard, bricked front sidewalk, as well as raised vegetable and flower beds.

2009-10: Sunny Point Kitchen Garden

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As “FarmGirl” (Lauri Newman), I have been gardening at the Sunny Point Café for more than 3 years. In 2007, I began designing the Sunny Point Cafe Garden to be a beautiful and inspiring space for the community, and provide fresh produce, herbs and flowers for the café. I began the installation in March 2008, and this is its first full year of “Garden to Table.”

Everything grown at the Sunny Point Café is grown naturally. I use local sources and heirloom seeds or varieties. I grow the majority of starts for the garden. Sunny Point’s owners are very dedicated to running their business in an environmentally responsible way and have been very supportive of the garden. As the garden manager, I hope that the Sunny Point Café Garden will serve as a model for other restaurants to invest in urban lots and local farmers by planting more urban food-producing gardens.

The garden would not be looking as great as it does without its many helpers. From the initial installation to the regular maintenance and the garden’s new additions, volunteer help has been a blessing and help make it all possible. For example: The raised wood beds are made from reclaimed wood donated by Ken and Kevin from their Rocket Club renovation, and all that wood was cut to spec by my dad. The co-owner, April Moon Harpers works weekly in the garden on top of her long hours working the Café. This year April and her mom, Belinda, (co-owner) have added a whole new layer of color, vertical trellises, bowling balls and pins, buckets of potatoes, and beans, beans, marvelous beans.

It can take a village to build a garden, and it is sooo much fun. I am absolutely addicted.

Event Extras: We are going to have an assortment of food & beverages that has come from the garden for visitors to try out. “Garden To Table” samples in the Garden. I will be at the garden on that day as well as my FarmGirl Intern-Kristen… the SunnyPoint owners will be there off and on as well. We will all be happy to give tours and talk to visitors.

Additional photo from the day of the stroll.

Sunny Point Cafe Gardens

2009-09: The Natural Gardeners, Annie J. and Mr. Jeff Menzer

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The garden, home, and studios of Annie and “Mr.Jeff” bring a smile to your face. Their small lot is packed with Re-Art and a diverse palate of plant life……with many native varieties to enjoy.

Mr. Jeff makes outdoor durable Art out of industrial discards and multiples that can be extracted from the waste stream, such as marbles, corks, golfballs, brick, roofing ,etc. Vermicomposting is a favorite addition to your visit there as Mr. Jeff has an active worm farm as well as a small nursery.

Event Extras:  Throughout the day we will have Art and Plants for sale
12:00 pm or there abouts…..Vermicomposting….1/2 hour demo:  A to Z of using red-wiggler worms to produce high quality vermi-compost in a back yard setting.
2:00 pm:  Installing Alternative Garden Edging including, bottles, metal roofing, brick, stone, concrete and industrial surplus.

Additional Photos from the day of the stroll.

Menzer Garden Menzer Garden Terraced Bank Menzer Garden Bamboo Container

2009-08: Chris Bryant and Skip Wade’s Garden

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We¹ve been working on our garden for about ten years. Our goal has been to create a cool and quite outdoor rooms in which to relax and entertain friends.

There is no specific style of gardening, we¹ve just thrown it all together like a large floral arrangement. The front garden is fenced in for privacy and to make the garden feel part of the porch. The back gardens are edged with river rocks gathered over the years from our favorite swimming hole. We grow some herbs but never vegetables, we prefer to support several our local organic farms.

We keep our garden projects small and low maintenance so we can spend most of our summer days by a river.

Additional photos from the day of the stroll.

Bryant/Wade Garden Dappled Color Bryant/Wade Garden Cool Conversation Bryant/Wade Garden Whimsy

2009-03: Falconhurst Community Garden

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The FCG is an 18 family, 2500 square foot cooperatively run community garden in the Falconhurst area of West Asheville. 2009 is our second year. There are 2 tiers of membership: the weekly members work one day a week in the garden, the monthly members come to the monthly community workday. We share the harvest equitably.

The FCG is located on a sunny hill facing south, in what we call “The Back 40” a large open green space, made up of a patchwork of privately owned land. It is part of one of our member’s back yard. Our garden used to be a lawn and we are still building our soil and fighting Bermuda grass. We currently grow 20 kinds of vegetables and herbs. We have 2 thriving beehives (the Love hive and the Peace hive). We collect rainwater in several cisterns for irrigation. In the future we want to expand the size of our garden, add a cob oven, and incorporate drip irrigation.

We try to involve the wider community in as much as possible, including monthly potlucks and a wonderful Harvest Festival. We are supported by membership dues and have also received support from the Bountiful Cities Project and the 4-H Club of Buncombe County.

Additional photo from the day of the stroll.

Falconhurst Community Garden

2009-04: Cherry Tree Gardens

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Our compound and garden came to be because we cut down the dead cherry tree, which brought down the fence, and because the warehouse for Cherry Tree Beads is on site.

This is only our second year gardening together.

Purpose of our gardens: to become more self sufficient, teach our children how to live in harmony with the earth, create a beautiful environment, our enjoyment, food, herbs, and because we love playing in the dirt!

Gardens include; Aquaponic systems (2), ponds(4), fruit trees, wild flowers, edible landscaping, shade garden, herbs- native/medicinal, art studio, and play houses. Almost everything we’ve created has been done using found and recycled materials.

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (soilless plant culture). In aquaponics, the nutrient-rich water that results from raising fish provides a source of natural fertilizer for the growing plants. As the plants consume the nutrients, they help to purify the water that the fish live in. A natural microbial process keeps both the fish and plants healthy and helps sustain an environment in which they both can thrive. Essentially, aquaponics is organic gardening, but without the dirt.”

Future plans include; tilapia for ponds, more rain barrels, solar power, learning to use the herbs, and turning the side lot into urban farm. Dream would be to have hens, goat, small green house, raised beds, bee hives, fruit trees, and more aquaculture systems.

We feel extremely blessed that the cutting of the cherry tree was the catalyst for our gardening project and for the friendship between our two families. Last year our tomatoes tasted like summer, and we had many communal meals from the frozen tomato sauce during the cold weather. We look forward to many more!

Event Extras: Display and sale of Cherry Tree Beads, chalk painting & tree house tours for kids, tours of the on-site artist studio, and a kid-run lemonade stand.

Additional photos from the day of the stroll.

Cherry Tree Gardens front yard flower meadow Edible landscaping at Cherry Tree Gardens

2009-05: Urban Paradise!

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Not being city folk, it was important for us to surround ourselves with natural beauty. This house had been condemned 5 years ago and the innards of the house got re-done but the outside needed lots of love.

Year one was all hardscape to replace the weeds, debris and overgrown trees. The backbone to the garden had to happen before the planting began. Because of the small space we were very selective with our plant choices.

Our original thoughts were for the majority of the plantings to be perennials and shrubs but as the garden progressed we realized the importance of growing our own food as well. We’ve added dwarf fruit trees, blueberries, strawberries, herbs and veggies throughout the garden space to make it edible as well as attractive.

We installed 700 gallons of rainwater collection last year with strategically placed rain barrels and expanded that to almost 900 gallons this year. A solar panel and pump was added to assist in watering our 200 sq. ft. raised bed area.

Projects that are in the works are a pergola that is a delightful summer sitting area now but plans are to screen it in for bug protection then replace the screen panels with clear corrugated panels for winter growing of lettuce and greens.

Other plans include an additional solar panel to power the waterfall for the fish pond, adding an additional raised bed for veggies, and building more cold frames (currently we have 4 frames) to increase our cold weather vegetable production.

Our garden feeds our body and our soul in addition to inspiring others to grow their own food.

Event extras: guided tours various times, talks about 4 season gardening, rainwater harvesting, solar pumps, small garden spaces

Additional photos from the day of the stroll.

Urban Paradise Garden Dreams Urban Paradise Balcony Gardens Urban Paradise Pond

2009-01: West Asheville Library – 924 Haywood Rd

Thanks to gardener Extraordinaire Tom Jordan and Asheville GreenWorks, landscaping at the West Asheville Branch Library includes a mix of deciduous trees along the street and eye-pleasing combinations of shrubs and perennials around the building. Plantings include rhododendrons and azaleas, rose of Sharon and St. John’s wort, pansies, violas, ferns, lemon balm, salvia, cone flower, soapwort, gooseneck loosestrife, and others.

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Click map image for larger version

 

The Garden Stroll stretches across the greater West Asheville area.
All neighborhoods are easily accessible from Haywood Road.

A detailed map will be available on the day of the stroll at the
WEST ASHEVILLE LIBARY

Signs along Haywood Road will guide you to the individual gardens.

We look forward to your visit!

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The LaZoom Tour Bus will run between the
West Asheville Garden clusters!
Thanks to our LaZoom bus sponsors:
West End Bakery
City Real Estate
Wholesale Glass and Mirror
Universal Joint