Faith, Folklore, and Friends

It is way too early to start dreaming about spring. We have had several days with temperatures in the fifties and sixties, and Hub took advantage of it by building a raised bed.  He plans to build two more. There are many advantages to raised beds, including being able to grow a lot of plants without a lot of space. It went together surprisingly quickly.   Now, it is ready to be filled with some good soil and compost.  More about that later. Right now, its back to the seed catalogs.

Thanks to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and all the other sponsors listed on the sign, Florence has its first and very popular community garden. Hub, who needed volunteer hours to complete his Master Gardener certification, did a lot of work helping build these 4' x 8' raised beds. There are approximately fifty raised beds, and all of them are full. The raised beds were constructed using pressure-treated lumber, then filled with compost, some of it consisting of decomposed trash from ginning cotton.  Soil tests were done, then lime and commercial fertilizer were added. Each bed was irrigated. First choice of the beds was given to veterans; then to people who do not have access to land to grow a garden; people who are physically unable to garden traditional, non-raised bed gardens, and   those economically unable to build a garden. Unfortunately, there was not enough for everyone who wanted one. There is a large variety of plants, and alm...