Southside Place Community Garden

Teresa and Pat O’Donnell are new members of the Southside Place Community Garden. And do they know something about gardening! They are the founders of Plant-it-Forward, which teaches new Texans how to become urban farmers.

Last week, we got to sit in on a Plant-it-Forward training session with farmers from the Congo, Cameron, and Darfour and then see Farmer Roy’s garden and farm stand (1318 Sul Ross, 77006).  We highly recommend a trip to the farm stand and garden on  a Saturday morning to buy fresh veggies and help a good cause.

 The story of the founding of Plant-it-forward is inspiring and can be viewed on Tedx  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLTggYKknZw (or just google Teresa O’Donnell/TED talks on YouTube).

Can you believe this is our 6th big garden bash? Come this year and see the new developments on the second lot. We have a putting green, paths and a curved bench that elevates the vacant lot to a beautiful green space, suitable for picnics and garden parties!Food will be catered by Molina’s with cake from Moeller’s bakery. An ice cream truck will be on hand. The talented John Curry will be singing and playing guitar. Tickets are $20 for adults; kids are free.

Article by Patty Tilton appeared in Southside Living Magazine June 2017

There’s a book and TedTalk by Angela Duckworth about “grit” that seems apropos of the Southside Place Community Garden Board. Not grit as in grit and grime, although we do get pretty dirty on Saturday work days. I mean the personality characteristic of grit.

SS Living Magazine Jan 2018

Grit (noun): Perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

It’s been almost five years since we embarked on the Southside Place Community Garden, a project built with sweat equity and grit. One of the original Board members, Bryan Baker, filed our application to become a 501c3 and we threw our first fundraiser in May 2013. A lot has been accomplished since then. We installed eight raised beds, planted a certified butterfly habitat border designed by Amy Bryant, and added an herb garden. The shed and pergola, designed by Joe Przybyl, were built with the help of corporate donations solicited by Lisa Roy, Kay Browning, and Linda Burdine. Linda Elkin took over Operations, making the master plan of each season’s planting. Our Treasurer, Patty Tilton kept the balance sheets and kept us all accountable. Linda Burdine kept Board meeting minutes, serving in the role of Secretary. We, as a team, purchased the furniture for the pergola, Kay Browning, being a former child care center director, took charge of Educational Outreach, bringing teachers and kids into the garden for lessons in biology and volunteerism. As a gritty team–and with the help of a growing army of garden members–we got things done.

photo credit: Ben Ballanfant

Soon we’ll be releasing the Southside Place Community Garden Board version 2.0. While it will be sad to see us founding Board members go, an infusion of new grit will revive the garden as we embark on developing the second lot. Claire Baker will take over as President, leading Board meetings and work with the Board, city and community to further the garden’s mission.  U.J. Bhandari will be the new Treasurer, keeping track of our donations and expenditures and filing our taxes. Pat Mullen will be serving as the head of Operations, deciding what to plant, where and when. Sally Lukats, formerly in charge of food pantry donations, will be in charge of Fundraising. The new director of Communications, Linda Elkin, will be sending out the emails to the garden members and (thankfully) writing the monthly column in Southside Living Magazine from now on.

Those of us stepping off the Board will likely remain active in the garden. It’s been such a rewarding experience to create such a lovely green space for the families of Southside Place and beyond. It brings us a sense of pride and purpose. If you have grit, we encourage you to get involved in the next phase of the Southside Place Community Garden.

Normally, we have at least one bed with three foot tall okra by now. The beautiful yellow flowers foreshadow the rapidly growing okra pods. Residents and city hall workers come by daily to pick the okra pods. Stockpile them for a week in the fridge and there is enough for a side dish. Not this year. This year, our okra turned into pumpkins.

 It’s not a Cinderella story. We had

Southside Living Magazine

planted about seven okra plants in the large melon bed near the shed and blanketed them with compost from our compost bins. The okra starts were not strong and withered, save one. In addition, our compost did not get hot enough because it contained viable pumpkin seeds from last season’s Jack-o-lanterns. These seeds sprouted and pumpkin seedlings quickly overran the struggling okra plants.  Our okra bed is filled with fast-growing, orange gourds.

Turns out, the best time to plant pumpkins for Halloween is in the summer. Pumpkin is one of the few seeds we can sow in the heat of the summer in Houston. While not deliberate, we were delighted to have created a pumpkin patch for October. In the meantime, we’ll plant some new okra starts to see if they can take hold. We know that you need your fix of okra, and that fried or pickled pumpkin just doesn’t fit the bill.

P.S.: Shortly after writing this article, we had to pull out the pumpkins due to an infestation. And voila! We found the okra. We’ll have okra for your Bloody Mary after all.

Every spring we hold our annual garden party to welcome the community into the garden and recruit new members. It started five years ago in 2013 and now has become a tradition in the neighborhood. Every year we change the party up a little bit. In 2014, the big change was that the garden Treasurer, Patty Tilton, had the idea to add a silent auction to the event. That was one smart move. The silent auction has become the biggest fundraiser for the community garden, generating enough funds to keep the garden running for a full year.

For two years Patty Tilton ran the auction by herself. Last year, Kristine Martinez of John Daugherty Real Estate took over the reins. This year at the April 23 party, a team of four from Encore Real Estate ran the show: Melinda Gordon, Shannon Thompson and Ron Shimkus. City Council member Jennifer Anderson also helped out. This year, the event was the best ever. They solicited donations from 39 companies, running around town to pick up all the donated gift certificates, sunglasses, baseball tickets etc. They created spreadsheets, graphic designs, and table displays. They worked the tables during the party, collecting checks and swiping credit cards. In the end, all of the auction items sold and they netted $5,176 for the garden, more than our annual garden operational expenses.

We’d like to thank all of the auction donors for their generous donations and Shannon, Melinda, Jenifer and Ron for their hard work on the auction. Also thanks to all of the garden party-goers who bid on the gift certificates, wine, tickets, rug. Not only do you get a great deal on these fabulous items but you also help keep our garden growing!

Click here for Auction Brochure 2017. Presents for Mother’s Day! This year–our 5th year!–it will be bigger than ever with activities for the kids, a silent auction and wine pull, and a potting station to plant your own container garden. Food catered by Molina’s and Moellers Bakery. So mark your calendar for April 23 4:30-8:30 for the casual event of the season. Rain out date March 7.

Email jbabcocktx@gmail.com

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Fun night in the tent! The tent was leftover from a party on a Friday night in February. The residents let us “double-dip” and use the tent the following Sunday. Good thing because the rain chances were high. Turned out to be a great night with mild weather,   a good turn out and some tasty wine and food. John Curry was on hand strumming and singing his eclectic mix of tunes. Beviamo Distributors and the new Rosinka Wine Bar poured Bordeaux, Tannats, and even an Amorone! The Churrascos-to-go food truck was serving giant meat sandwiches and French fries.  A portion of the wine and food truck sales will be donated to the garden.

Here we go! We are having the kick-off wine tasting party in the garden on Sunday February 19 4:30-7:30. A garden member is having a party in a tent Friday

with a big, white tent and donated it for our use on Sunday night.  This is a free party where guest taste wine, listen to live music, and buy wine for themselves or to donate to the garden. The wine donations are the back bone of our big, family-friendly party on April 23, 2017. We’ll be pouring wine and auctioning off bottles at our wine pull. A fantastic food truck (self-pay) will be there serving huge meat sandwiches, french fries etc.  A fan favorite, John Curry, will be singing and playing guitar. Come for the wine, for the music, for the food or just to hang and talk to your neighbors. This even is free but we’ll be collecting dues ($25 per person per year) and donations. Find us in the tent, rain or shine!