Riverside Village Community Garden - Recently Updated Pages

Harvest Pot Luck 2008

rorymckenna — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:37:25 CST

To celebrate the success of the garden Laura organized a Pot Luck for the community.

Getting Started April 2008

rorymckenna — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:29:27 CST

Getting Started
April 2008

When we first started, the plot of land Dan with Heller Properties provided needed a lot of work and love to make it a place were a garden would flourish. The first step was clearing the area to prepare it for a new layer of topsoil.

Clearing the plot was a lot of hard work, the area had been used to dump concrete, rocks and asphalt from an old parking lot, and the accumulated construction trash that had piled up over the years. We also wanted to remove about a foot of soil that was rocky and filled with junk. We were concerned about what had been dumped there over the years and felt that a good deep bed of new soil and compost was the best way to get our garden off to a great start. It was just a lot more hard work than anyone expected.

Once the lot had been cleared and the old soil dug out a new layer of top soil and compost was added. With some additional work and planning the site was ready for planting.

By the end of Summer the Garden had transformed the vacant back lot into a vibrant community gathering spot.

Riverside Village Community Garden Pot Luck Summer 2008

"We had lots of great food, music, dancing, and great puppet show. About 125 people showed up and it gave us all an opportunity to meet more of our neighbors. Fox 17 News came out and did story for the 9:00 news that night."

Thank you, again, to all the volunteers and especially Laura Eve Wallace, who first conceived of the harvest pot luck party idea and who worked so hard to make it all happen.

Before the Garden

rorymckenna — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:16:54 CST

The vacant lot was used in the past by the local businesses as a dumping ground for construction waste and would need a lot of work to transform it into a garden. Dan with Heller Properties had started the process of transforming the lot into a space the community and local businesses could be proud of. It took a lot of vision to see the potential.

Our Goals and Vision

rorymckenna — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:00:58 CST

The Riverside Village Community Garden

· Grow · Learn · Connect ·Inspire

The Riverside Village Community Garden is a working model for a small-scale, environmentally sustainable urban food system. The garden is a place where local people work together to grow organic veggies, fruit and herbs. Through the garden we are cultivating our community, our local food system and ourselves.

The community garden’s function is to utilize available urban land to produce safe and healthy food. It offers us hands-on gardening experience, a way to get to know our neighbors, and acts as a community resource where people come to learn how to develop a sustainable local food system. We hope to inspire others to develop their own garden, communal ground, balcony or rooftop, so they too can grow organic produce for individual, community and local commercial use.

Come grow with us, no experience required.

See also: Brainstorming | Team Members | Project Schedule

Event Calendar

rorymckenna — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:13:28 CST

2008 Calendar
Click on the month to see what is going on for the month.

August , September

Upcoming Events for the next week or two.

Event:	Date & Time:	Place:
We will have our weekly meeting Wednesday at 5:30.	Every Wednesday 5:30PM	At the garden

Learn

rorymckenna — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:48:59 CDT

Do you have an interesting article, book or web site related to gardening that you would like to share. Please add it to the list with a brief description.

Web Sites:

1. http://www.wnpt.net/vg/index.html Volunteer Gardener Program Website.
This is a NPT program that highlights gardens in the Tennessee and provides tips for local gardeners.

2. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/organic/ Organic Gardening discussion forum

3. http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/ Organic Gardening Tips Page

4. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/tngard/ Tenneesse Gardening Forum. This forum is for those in Tennessee to discuss the various aspects of gardening.

5. http://tnagmuseum.org/index.html The agricultural museum, located on the spacious grounds of the Ellington Agricultural Center, has an extensive collection of home and farm artifacts from the 19th and early 20th centuries along with rural Tennessee prints and folk art sculptures. The museum is handicapped accessible with ample parking. Hours are weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except on state holidays. For organized activities, reservations are required. Call (615) 837-5197 for scheduling. The museum offers events and educational classes through out the year. Check out their web site.

Printed Resources:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Wiki Tip:
Add a hyperlink to any text by highlighting the words you want to link, then clicking EasyEdit and the "Link" button. In the field provided, type in the wiki page name you want to link to, or the complete URL for any site on the web.

See also: The Assignment | Brainstorming | Rough Draft | Team Member

Connect

rorymckenna — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:21:52 CDT

Learn more about the Inglewood community.
http://liveinglewoodtn.com
This is a great website providing some history and facts about our neighborhood.

East Nashville Information on Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/group/inglewood-billboard?hl=en

Description: This group is for announcements only (community calendar). Local merchants, nonprofits, churches and residents of East Nashville may post upcoming events, sales, news and other activities of interest to this community

Inspire

rorymckenna — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:36:24 CDT

If the idea of a community garden has inspired you to start your own garden share your story, add a page and tell us what you have done, add pictures of your garden and help inspire others.

Nashville's community gardens are growing. See a recent article in the Tennessean

Urban gardens grow friendships, More neighborhoods jump on community gardening trend
By JENNIFER JUSTUS Staff Writer
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080517/GREEN04/805170310/1907/GREEN01

Get Involved

rorymckenna — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:56:03 CDT

If you would like to join our group please send an email to:

Laura Wallace
lauraghp@hotmail.com
Become a member of this website. Click the "Join This Wiki" button to sign up and become a member.

You can also contribute to this web site. The software that runs the site is based on wiki software which lets anyone that becomes a member contribute.
Learn how to contribute

Or join us at the SIP Coffee Shop for more information or check the calendar for group meetings.

SIP Cafe

1402 McGavock Pike
Nashville, TN 37216
(615) 227-1035

Riverside Village Community Garden Wiki Home Page

rorymckenna — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:51:57 CDT

Welcome to the Riverside Village Community Garden Project

The Riverside Village is located in the East Nashville Tennessee community of Inglewood.

Our group, a community based organization working with the help of local business owners, is organizing and planting a community garden as a way to improve our community and our city. Please come join us to help make our garden grow, learn more about gardening, or just connect your neighbors.

View our Goals and Vision

See our upcoming events and meetings

Connect to your community and get involved with the project

Grow

rorymckenna — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:36:54 CDT

Information about the garden

What are we growing.

Garden Plan

Team Members

rorymckenna — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:34:04 CDT

Please note that this page is not a private page. If you do not want your email or phone number published please do not add it to this page.

Name	Email	Phone Number	Role
Dan Heller	hellerprops@aol.com	615-429-8775	go to guy

Rory McKenna	rory_mckenna@hotmail.com		Wiki Site Mgr
Laura Eve Wallace	lauraghp@hotmail.com	404-295-4903	tzar
Patricia Conway	patricia.conway@vanderbilt.edu	615-995-1741	Visionary

Wiki Tip:
To add more rows to a table, put your cursor in the last row of the table and right-click with your mouse. Select "Add row" from the tool tips menu.

Learn How To Wiki

rorymckenna — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:42:23 CDT

This site was created using Wiki software, the same type of software that runs Wikipedia. This allows anyone signed up as a member to contribute information, add pages, photos or start discussions.

1. If you do not have an account with Wetpaint or have not become a member of this site you will see a button in the upper right corner to "Join This Wiki". Click the button and sign up as a member.

2. Once you are a member a new set of icons will appear under the menu bar.

3. To add to a page or edit information, go to the page and click the Easy Edit button. The page will load in edit mode and the EasyEdit Toolbar will appear.

Use your mouse to click on the page to insert text or modify text. The Toolbar can be used to change the font, add links, photos and more. When you have finished adding your information click the Save button to update the page. That's it, you have updated the page.

4. For more advanced features and to learn more, check out this help page created by the Wetpaint development team. The FAQ page provides more in-depth information on editing pages and provides links to help understand how the wiki software works. ://www.wetpaintcentral.com/page/FAQ

Please note some pages are locked by the administrator and cannot be edited.

Please also note the Policies that govern the Wetpaint website. Violations of the Code of Conduct will result in your membership being suspended and your additions removed. Play nice.
http://www.wetpaintcentral.com/page/Abuse+and+Policies

Add graphics and flourishes that match this wiki design (they're free from Paint Splatters)

Why a Community Garden?

rorymckenna — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:08:52 CDT

Our neighborhood of Inglewood is growing and changing, with many new people moving in to live alongside those who have been here for decades. Today’s Inglewood has a mix of people from different places, cultures and walks of life. We may not all be the same, but something we all have in common is our need to eat.

In our community it is hard to get affordable and healthy food. This is something we can work together to change. The Riverside Village Community Garden is an example of neighbors working together to create access to affordable, healthy food in our community.

Most of us are dependent on the supermarkets for our fresh foods. The supermarket can be hard to get to, and because their fresh foods are shipped to us from all around the world at high cost, it makes it really expensive to buy veggies, fruit and herbs. We don’t know exactly where or how this produce is grown or if it is safe for us to eat. Safe produce, called ‘organic’, means that the veggies, fruit and herbs were grown without chemicals that can harm us. Safe produce is hard to get to in Inglewood and costs even more. For most of us this means that the safe, fresh foods that are best for us are a luxury we can’t afford. We can change this!

Communities have been working together all around the country to grow their own veggies, fruit and herbs. By doing this, the communities are building their own food system, reducing their dependence on business to bring food in, and keeping produce affordable for people in the community. In the cities, these are known as ‘urban gardens’, and can be found in parks, communal land, private gardens, balconies and even rooftops.

The Riverside Village Community Garden is an urban garden in Inglewood, working as a model of a local, healthy community food system. The garden is based in the new ‘Riverside Village’ local business complex. The complex has a shared space out back, where people can eat and hang out. The garden forms part of this space, and is being developed and maintained by ordinary folks in our local community. These neighbors are learning how to grow food for themselves and for some of our local food outlets. We hope to grow enough produce for those who work in the garden to take home, as well as tomatoes and basil for Castrillo’s pizza shop, fresh mint for SIP, and some more unusual veggies for Mitchell’s Deli.

Come join us as and help us grow not just produce, but our community and its food security!

Planting Info

rorymckenna — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:06:50 CDT

The USDA provides information planting information to help select the right plants for this area. Middle Tennessee is Zone '6b', which covers most of Middle Tennessee. USDA Hardiness Zone Map.

In many cases a packet of seeds or a plant will provide information that shows if the plant will do well in this area and might list the planting times by zone.

Compost Info

rorymckenna — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:04:35 CDT

Composting is the transformation of organic material (plant matter) through decomposition into a soil-like material called compost. Invertebrates (insects and earthworms), and microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) help in transforming the material into compost. Composting is a natural form of recycling, which continually occurs in nature.

Today there are several different reasons why composting remains an invaluable practice. Yard and food wastes make up approximately 30% of the waste stream in the United States. Composting most of these waste streams would reduce the amount of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) requiring disposal by almost one fourth, while at the same time provide a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Compost added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. When mixed with compost, clay soils are lightened, and sandy soils retain water better. Mixing compost with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants.

The standard means of disposal for most yard and food waste include landfilling and incineration. These practices are not as environmentally or economically sound as composting. Yard waste which is landfilled breaks down very slowly due to the lack of oxygen. As it decomposes, it produces methane gas and acidic leachate, which are both environmental problems

Landfilling organic wastes also takes up landfill space needed for other wastes. Incinerating moist organic waste is inefficient and results in poor combustion, which disrupts the energy generation of the facility and increases the pollutants that need to be removed by the pollution-control devices. Composting these wastes is a more effective and usually less expensive means of managing organic wastes. It can be done successfully on either a large or small scale, but the technique and equipment used differ.

Information quoted from website "How to Compost.org"

Ingredients for your Compost

Cardboard Coffee grounds Egg shells Fall leaves Fruit and vegetable scraps Grass cuttings Old straw & hay Paper based Egg boxes Paper towels & bags Plant material Rabbit, pigeon, cow and horse manure	Sawdust Soft prunings Tea bags Tree and shrub clippings Tree Leaves Vegetable plant remains Weeds Wood ash Wood shavings Woody prunings
DO NOT USE IN YOUR COMPOST Ash from glossy magazine colored news paper Cat litter and cat feces Coal ash Cooked food Disposable diapers Dog feces Fish Human waste Meat

Video History

rorymckenna — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:24:00 CDT

Watkins film students Caroline Ingrassia and Steven Berryessa have expressed a strong interest in filming our community garden process, from its beginning stages all the way through harvest and related activities.

If our garden progresses in the way we expect---as a model-microcosm for community supported & controlled agriculture in a commercial setting etc, as well as a learning center for organic gardening, I think our venture may well be of interest to others outside Inglewood. Ergo, the movie...

The film's scope and content has yet to be determined so all ideas and suggestions are welcome! I think this is tremendous opportunity for everyone involved and might be a great platform to do more things to enrich the community. A big thank you to neighbor Melissa Means of Watkins for finding these young filmmakers.

Future Events to Plan For

rorymckenna — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:20:29 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.