Gordon and Gordon’s gardeners want to extend a heartfelt thank
you to everyone involved in the success of our first year! We learned so much and made so many new
friends.
Gordon sends his heartfelt thanks to Mayor Benjamin, the City of Columbia and the City Parks and Recreation Department. Your vision and forethought in developing citywide community gardens was the catalyst that launched this program. We will continue to seek out ways to spread children's gardens throughout the city and to expose our children to gardening.
Special thanks go out to Azeez Mustafa of Asya's Organic Farm in Sumter, SC for encouraging us and for making sure that we continued to believe in ourselves! Mr. Mustafa was the first and is the largest African American owned Organic farm in the state of South Carolina.
Gordon sends his heartfelt thanks to Mayor Benjamin, the City of Columbia and the City Parks and Recreation Department. Your vision and forethought in developing citywide community gardens was the catalyst that launched this program. We will continue to seek out ways to spread children's gardens throughout the city and to expose our children to gardening.
Special thanks go out to Azeez Mustafa of Asya's Organic Farm in Sumter, SC for encouraging us and for making sure that we continued to believe in ourselves! Mr. Mustafa was the first and is the largest African American owned Organic farm in the state of South Carolina.
A lot happened to Gordon since last spring. We
learned so much about how to garden.
We
were plagued with squash bugs and squash borers. We will be treating our beds with beneficial
nematodes and planting squash early to combat those nasty critters this
spring.
When melons split, it is usually due to inconsistent watering. We will be using soaker hoses in our tomato
and melon beds this year.
Tomatoes like organic soil.
We will be scooping more poop this year!
Our spring lettuce was incredible! It was our most successful crop.
Our fall lettuce was the top crop again. Everyone is still raving about it and they are
already asking when we will have some this year!
The rest of our fall crops were FANTASTIC! Heading and top collards, mustard
greens, curly turnip greens, turnip greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and
red, green and Savoy cabbages. We still
have collards and Brussels sprouts!
We are pleased to announce our partnership with Ed Brogdon’s
Back~To~Eden . Together, we are Gordon
Goes Back~To~Eden. This partnership
allows us to build raised bed gardens at schools and to introduce children to gardening. On January 27, we dedicated our first garden at the Irmo Elementary in
Irmo, SC.
A third grade class at the Lyon Elementary school in
Columbia, SC has planted 144 seedlings, in various mediums, to see how well
they grow. Gordon’s has invited that
class to plant their seedlings at the garden.
Well, we are getting ready for spring planting. We have a truckload of Zoo Poo coming, to top
our some of our beds, and we will be having another Scoop the Poop party at the
Bright Morning Star Horse Ranch to fill the rest!
The Auntie Karen Foundation is proud of and pleased with our Gordon's Garden program. For more on the foundation on on Gordon's Garden, view the link below.
Look for us to post our progress next week!
