We’ve come a mighty long way…
When we went to the Board of Trustees at The Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith to secure the use of the fallow field-that’s all there was, a fallow field and the faith that we could raise enough donations and do enough work (and by work I mean physical labor) to make The Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden come to fruition. The Board readily agreed, we immediately launched an aggressive campaign to raise the funds and many of you helped. You prayed for us, encouraged us, and when you saw our posts on Facebook you hit “Like” and some of you even left a “Comment” and some of you even hit “Share” and used your social networks to help us in the quest. Thank You!
We started out needing everything. I prioritized what we needed using traditional restaurant guidelines of $ signs for relative costs. Right off the bat we needed 750′ of Untreated Lumber, cut to specification ($$$); Organic Soil, enough to fill 35+ raised beds 8″ deep-and beds for Corn, Greens, Potatoes, Tomatoes & Watermelon are 10’x 5′ ($$$$); Above Ground Drip Irrigation System & 4 Rain Barrels ($$$$); many Plant Supports ($$); Garden Twine & Nails to make the grids ($); and 4 Composters ($$$).
We also needed to buy all the seeds and plants for the garden ($$$). Flowers: Dahlias, Hibiscus, Hydrangea, Nasturtium, Marigolds, Morning Glories, Peonies, Roses, Sunflowers and Zinnia. Fruits: Blueberries, Cantaloupe, Strawberries & Watermelon. Herbs: Basil, Chamomile, Chives, Cilantro, Dill, Lavender, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage and Thyme. Veggies: Asparagus, Beets, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Collard Greens, Corn, Garlic, Green Beans, Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Peas, Peppers (Sweet and Hot), Potatoes (Red and Yukon Gold), Radishes, Shallots, Spinach, Tomatoes, Turnips and Zucchini.
Because we have a lot of senior citizens in this congregation and the surrounding community, we want the garden to be accessible so we needed Crushed Gravel ($$$$) to cover the 4 foot walkways between each raised bed-again at least several inches deep so it can be compacted to reduce weeds and make a smooth, wheelchair friendly walkway. To help deter various varmints and critters we also needed Perimeter Fencing ($$$) and Motion Detector Solar Lights ($$$) -it turns out that nocturnal critters are shy and don’t like being in the spotlight! And finally, we have a lot of young families in the congregation and tons of kids in the community. We’re adding a layer of Plexi-Glass ($$) along one wall of one of the raised beds so the children can actually see the growth process. And we’ll create Laminated Labels with Information ($$) staked next to each raised bed and Greenhouses ($$) so we can propagate all the seeds we’re going to save from this season’s harvest.
So where are we now? Well thanks to generous donations and the incredible work of our “Construction Crew that Works for Cookies” aka CMadison’s sons and nephews, we’ve purchased all 750′ of lumber, rented a tiller , turned the soil, built all 35+ raised bed and lined them with newspaper to prevent weeds. Thanks to Kurtz Bros’ generosity we were able to get 2 tons of organic soil at literally half price and our crew hauled and shoveled those 2 tons into each of the raised beds and raked them level. We purchased all the seeds, and bare roots and (almost) all of the flowers and the trellises and cages for the Peas, Cucumbers and Tomatoes. We bought gobs of Garden Twine and a couple of boxes of nails and made the Square Foot Gardening Grids on the cheap! More than 50% of the garden has been planted (Yeah!!!)
But there’s still more to do and a few things left to purchase. We still need to finish planting-by the end of the week! And we need to buy the Above Ground Drip Irrigation System & 4 Rain Barrels ($$$$); 4 Composters ($$$); Perimeter Fencing ($$$$); Motion Detector Solar Lights ($$$);Crushed Gravel ($$$$); a few more Veggie Supports ($$); and Laminated Labels with Information ($$). That’s about $3,000.00. We need either 1 person to donate $3 large or 2 people to give $1,500.00 each or 3 to give $1 Grand; or 6 folks to give $500.00 or 300 people to kick-in $10.00… any computation will work as long as it adds up to $3,000.00.
So if you are concerned about community, health education, food deserts and GMOs and you are willing to help us-here are 4 things I need you to do:
1) Click this donation link, http://bit.ly/1sP64XB (Telos Training, Inc is a 501(c)(3) so if your company does matching gifts…Yeah!!!)
2) “Like” Telos Training, Inc. and this post on Facebook;
3) “Share” this post across your social networks; and
4) Keep praying for us and sending out positive energy as we use this project to bless the community and work through our grief at CMadison’s death.