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 The Giving Garden - Elba, Alabama  The Elba High School FFA, under the direction of Jamie Hudson, built the first seven raised beds. Seven more will be added in the spring. We are beyond thrilled with the progress that has been made at The Giving Garden to date! The garden site is located on Putnam Street in downtown Elba behind the old jail and Folsom House. The project has been in the works for some time now and started with the donation the land to Restoration 154 by the City of Elba. A committee of community activists and seasoned gardeners was formed to work out the details. A matching funds grant was secured, which helped to provide the funds for the garden along with the following sponsors: Westside Baptist Church, Covenant Community Church, Elba Church of Christ, Tim Williams, Wiregrass Weddings, Coffee County Extension Service, Master Gardeners, Charlie Hayes and Heath Wyrosdick and Black Gold Soil.  The raised beds were lined with newspaper from The Elba Clipper office to help deter grass growing up from under the boxes Soil was purchased and delivered to the site last week and then Saturday, the planting began! We had groups from the Enterprise High School FFA, Elba High School FFA, 4-H, Coffee County Extension Service, Master Gardeners, Restoration 154, Elba Church of Christ, Wiregrass Weddings and Covenant Community Church that came together to work at our first Planting Day. Crop signs were donated from Rusty's Feed and Seed and seeds from the Coffee County Coop in Curtis. People came from Brantley, Enterprise, New Brockton and, of course, Elba, to get the garden off to a good start.  Dirt was loaded into the boxes with the help a tractor belong to David Garrett from the extension office.  The Master Gardeners pose for a group shot in front of their completed bed of collards.  A 5 year old pecan tree was donated to The Giving Garden by Sharon Emfinger and was planted behind the Elba Chamber of Commerce.  The fall crops that were planted include lettuce, onions, carrots, collards, and turnips.  A member of the Master Gardeners Club plants turnip seeds after marking off the rows and preparing the soil.  Enterprise High School FFA and 4-H Club members help to dig the trench for the irrigation and fill the boxes with soil.  Irrigation was run to each box, so that each team can attached a soaker hose and individually turn their water source on and off.  We finished out of day of work by erecting the new Giving Garden sign, which was donated by Pam Maddaloni from Williams Signs in Elba.  The corners have been marked for the next seven boxes, which will be put into place by the Spring Planting Day, March 21st. |
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