Garden Club

The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. ~ Gertrude Jekyll

We are building a community garden from the ground up!

We are so excited to begin our Bridge of Hope Garden Club. It has been a long time coming, but with the help of our sponsors and partners in the community, we can finally begin a worthy cause that will impact the needs of our community in a different way.

We will begin this project in April. Stay tuned for opportunities to learn about gardening, building and composting in the months to come.

Build It

Volunteers spent a few days cutting boards to assemble the first set of garden boxes for the garden. After assembly, the boxes were coated to prevent rotting and leaking.

Plant & Tend it

The Bridge of Hope Garden Club met on May 8 for a day of sorting, planting and potting. A few members gathered to make preparations for the annual Forest Heights Community Plant Swap. Members sorted seeds for the free seed hub that will be onsite. Another group potted up small gardenia trees, zinnias and other plants that will be taken to the swap for trading. A third group potted up seed starts for the community garden that will soon be underway. Varied types of tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables were moved into bigger pots to allow the plants more time develop strong roots.

During our June meetings, we filled boxes using the lasagna gardening method. Starting with cardboard, we added dried leaves and aged compost. We installed a few plants the gardeners potted up back in May and planted others donated by Mayfield's Sow God's Seed Farm. We will finish with a layer of mulch to retain moisture.

Fall Garden Loading

In late July and August, we started our fall seeds. We planted broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, and 4 varieties of collards. It is the perfect time to get outside and clean up, get some brassicas started and get ready to sow mustard greens and turnips.

Look what we are growing this fall, ya'll!

The scholars planted five different varieties of heirloom collards this year. Since they have been repotted and fertilized, they are growing pretty well. We will be growing Lottie, William Alexander, Morris Heading, Georgia Southern and Nancy Malone Purple collards well into spring.

We have been pretty busy working on the fall garden. First, we topped off the boxes with fresh compost. Then, we direct sowed broccoli, turnips, mustard greens, carrots, Swiss chard, kale and bok choy.

collard greens

hybrid collards

broad leaf mustards

Harvest it

collards and basil

sweet potatoes

Preserve it

"Seeds are the essence of life, the beginning of something beautiful, and the symbol of hope." ~Quotesanity

Our LEGO League Mentor, Constance Curenton, harvested some bushing string bean seeds from our garden.

Seed Saving

When we talk about preserving, our minds automatically think about extending the shelf life of the delicious foods we grow. We will get there. Another important aspect of preserving our foods is saving seeds at the end of the season, so we can continue to reap the benefits of growing a garden.

One of the easiest sources of seeds is the bean. Bean flowers are perfect, so they do not cross-pollinate. This means you can dry pods right on the vine and use the dry seeds to plant out in your garden the next year. Even if you grow different types of beans in your garden, it is safe to save the seeds. We are saving bushing string beans from our community garden. We also harvested the seeds from sweet basil plants.

The flower heads on our summer sweet basil are drying out. We snipped them off to replant next spring.

“Every great dream begins with a seed. You have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman

Interested in joining the Planning Committee?

Interested in Volunteer Days?

Community Connections

Forest Heights Neighborhood Association Plant Swap

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. ~ Mahatma Ghandi