Beall's Hill Community Garden at Centenary

In the news

2010-04-11T11:03:00.001-04:00

Spring 2010 Planting

2010-03-31T10:13:00.001-04:00

The Beall's Hill Community Garden at Centenary will hold its spring planting celebration beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 10.

Hope to see you all out there!

Fall Planting Set for Sunday, Sept. 27

2009-09-25T02:38:00.000-04:00

Join us in the garden as we plant fall vegetables, weed, water and spread compost in the garden.

Sunday, September 27, all gardeners are asked to come at 2 p.m., if you are able, to enjoy the cool(ish) weather as we plant.

Bring your shovels, wheel barrows and gloves.

All the Hard Work Paid Off

2009-07-16T17:20:00.002-04:00

The zuccini is producing! We were worried that the powdery mildew would wipe it out.

I saw Harry Eskew riding his bicycle toward the garden early one day last week. I believe he is checking on it in addition to the folks signed up on the Google calendar. It's great to have an experienced senior citizen to advise us and help out.

Some of the neighbors from Elm Street and around Ash and the men in the transitional house are enjoying the produce and helping with the watering. It' s a great time right now!

Good Vegetables and Learning about Powdery Mildew

2009-07-08T20:24:00.003-04:00

We have now enjoyed cucumbers, more eggplants and a few cherry tomatoes from the garden. It continues to grow rapidly with the help of some rain and regular watering by Shaquan, Darren, and Larry. Thanks to Karol Kelley, Bibb County Extension Agent, and Phillip, Master Gardener, we were able to diagnose powdery mildew on the zuccini. Ellen researched online and discovered this could be treated organically with a mixture of one part skim milk and eight parts water. I mixed up a good amount of this and Shaquan and Larry sprayed today. Since the zuccini seems to have been getting too much moisture, Shaquan and I had removed the hay mulch on Tuesday. We have also removed affected leaves and carried them away from the garden. We're learning more every day about the life of the vegetable gardener! Tomorrow morning, Jane Jordan and I will weed and work on staking the overladen tomato plants and hopefully neighbor Kay Gerhardt will join us. Soon we should a large enough harvest to share with many.

Volunteer Meeting

2009-06-30T09:26:00.003-04:00

Please join us at 7pm on July 1st at Centenary's Community Building. An experienced gardner will be there to answer our gardening questions and instruct us on harvesting vegetables, weeding our beds, and pruning tomatoes.

Photos from Mary Anne

2009-06-30T09:15:00.004-04:00

These were taken last week. The first image is of okra. The second shows our discovery of a cucumber, and the third shows the actual cucumber. If you remember, take your camera to the garden and send us your best shots. We will then post them to the site.

Our First Meal from the Garden

2009-06-29T20:16:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday we ate our first produce from the garden--a white eggplant and a banana pepper. I could still feel the warmth from the garden in the vegetables as I prepared them in my kitchen for dinner. They were delicious; and it was so exciting to enjoy the fruit of our labor! I am amazed every day now at how much the garden is growing and at the neighborhood and volunteer participation.

Thanks to Ellen and Craig for securing the hay for mulch and to Ellen, Shaquan, and Larry for spreading it. The mulch should help a lot with water retention.

I was glad to read tonight that Ellen cleared up some of the factual inaccuracies in the Telegraph article, though we were grateful for the article and the pictures.

Eggplant, Cucumbers, Okra and more

2009-06-25T11:10:00.003-04:00

Our garden is flourishing. Vegetables are growing at what seems to be incredible speed. I frequent the garden several times a week, and I'm continually astounded by our bounty. Today Mary Anne Richardson, Jane Jordan and I picked eggplant, cucumber and basil. There are more cucumbers ripening on the vine and our okra plants, the ones that seemed sickly only weeks ago, are growing! The tomatoes will ripen next.

We have had a great turn out by volunteers from the neighborhood and Centenary. As vegetables ripen, volunteers should feel free to pick them and take them home. If a large number of vegetables are available for picking, please contact me, Ellen (embyron@gmail.com), or Mary Anne (maryanne.richardson@gmail.com) and we will let our volunteer pool know.

If you have questions about volunteer duties or would like to sign up, please email me as well. Mary Anne took pictures this morning, and she will post those later. Stay tuned.

Garden in the news

2009-06-16T12:11:00.006-04:00

Last week a photographer from the Macon Telegraph visited the garden. A slideshow of his visit is here.

Yesterday an article about the garden was published, see here. There are a few inaccuracies about the story. For one, our primary purpose isn't to distribute food to needy people, but rather to use the garden as a mechanism to engage all neighbors in our community. That said, we are certain we will have an abundance of vegetables, and we will distribute these to needier members of our community as the become available. Second, Ellen Byron is not the president of the neighborhood association (although Craig Byron, the actual president, would probably be happy to relinquish his duties). Regardless of those details, it's good to see the garden in the news.

plants in the ground

2009-05-14T20:11:00.006-04:00

I can't say thank you enough to the volunteers who joined us at the garden site today. We did it! Plants are in the ground. Now let's watch them grow.

Of course, today was just the first step of many. We need volunteers to spend time weeding and watering our garden. We have set up a google calendar (see sidebar at left). If you would like to sign yourself up, please send me (embyron@gmail.com) or Mary Anne (maryanne@centenarymacon.org) an email. If you would like to schedule yourself, let me know and I will give you ADD capabilities on the calendar.

Photos from the day, here.

New Planting Date

2009-05-12T13:16:00.002-04:00

Mark your calendars! We will plant the garden on Thursday, May 14. We will start at 4 pm and work until the beds are full. Come whenever you are able.

See you in the garden.

Photo Update

2009-05-10T09:04:00.005-04:00

For a slideshow of all the photos taken today, go here.

Planting Day, Almost

2009-05-09T13:55:00.000-04:00

Grub worms, grub worms, and more grub worms!

We were ready to plant, but as we turned and prepared the beds this morning, it became clear we had a problem: grub worms! There was much discussion over insecticides (organic vs traditional pesticide), and finally we settled on a bacterial solution: milky spore.

The beds have now been treated, and our planting date has been pushed back once more. We're so close, and we hope our volunteers will show again in force. We will put plants in the ground this week. Watch the calendar in the sidebar for updates.

Stay Tuned. Pictures to come.

Building Day

2009-05-05T22:55:00.000-04:00

Volunteers from Mercer University, Beall's Hill Neighborhood, and Centenary Church gathered on May 2 to build 12 raised beds.

Below are some photographs from the day. A slideshow of all images is available here.

Photos by Janet Crocker.