The Unity Gardens LaSalle Square Luau

 Get ready for the 3rd annual LaSalle Square Luau this Saturday 11am to 2pm at 3701 Prast Blvd! Cook out, activities for adults and kids, cooking demos, tasting tours of the garden and new educational area, and Peace Bees activities! 

 

Join us in the garden to celebrate the height of our growing season!  We gather in the garden at the Luau to celebrate food and fellowship!    Unity Gardens is known for successfully bringing diverse people together in our community for shared benefit.  Meet our team of volunteers, garden leaders, and guests.  Help us continue to grow by attending our fund raising cook out.

  Portabella sandwiches and burgers!

 

Supporting Unity Gardens and saving lives! We only need 8 more people!   Pre-register for the blood drive here http://bit.ly/UNITYGARDEN       Enjoy the cook outs and activities!

 

Cook out meal includes your choice of a hamburger or our famous portabella sandwich, a side and beverage.  Only $10.00

 

"The Shirt", our new 2012 Unity Gardens T-shirt will be on sale also!

For more information call 574 315-4361 or e-mail Growunitygardens@yahoo.com

Things We Talk About in the Garden

As I was speaking with a woman out at the LaSalle Square Unity Garden last week I realized again its more than vegetables we grow here. This woman lives in Kalamazoo and comes by the garden when she is in town visiting her mother. I sometimes refer to her as the lady who lost her cell phone in the garden. ( we never have found it )
   As often happens the subject of Varmints in the garden comes up . Deer , Rabbits , Ground Hogs , Raccoons , Skunks and more . Well she tells me that she saves her urine all winter to put around her raised beds to keep the animals at bay . Now while some may think this is funny its the case with all us crazy gardeners save the garden at all cost . I find myself pouring cat poop and urine down the groundhogs hole . Many home remedies include Fox Urine , Dog hair , old shiny CD's hug in the garden, hot Pepper mix sprayed on plants . All of these things work to some degree if you want to avoid the trapping and killing of an animal in the garden which nobody wants to do. Of course this is where I insert a thought. If you plan on trapping an animal and relocating it ...Don't ! its not a good idea to move your problem to some other farm or garden.
   Yes this seems to be the year for animals in the garden , and weeds. Just don't let it make you crazy !! Enjoy your garden, and share a little with the critters.

Kids Program

Weed or Plant ?

A Visit to the market

The Jr. Master Gardener / Kids Program continues to be a great success story. bringing in kids from all around the neighborhood . This week we did weed is it a weed or is it a vegetable plant in the garden, also made a visit to the local Urban Garden Market , Made bird feeders , and Macaroni Necklaces ...a Busy day for sure .

This Weekend

Tour De Unity is this Sunday June 17th you can Still sign up the day of the ride starting at 7:30 am ,
Until june 15th you can sign-up online at active.com

We are waving any late registration fees . The cost will be $ 25 right up until ride time , If we run out of t-shirts we will order you one

The Ride will start at 9am from the Food Bank of Northern Indiana

The ride will tour several gardens and end up back at The Food Bank where we will have a Cookout with Hamburgers or Veggie Burgers

Most stops will have water and some will have snacks
There will be a truck following the ride in case anyone has a problem and needs a ride to the finish.
We will have written directions for everyone and ride leaders to help make sure everyone knows the way.
We have also marked most of the the route with green arrows on the road telling you which way to go

For more info
www.tourdeunity.blogspot.com

or call 574-315-4361

Tour De Unity

Tour De Unity is this Sunday June 17th you can Still sign up the day of the ride starting at 7:30 am ,
Until june 15th you can sign-up online at active.com

We are waving any late registration fees . The cost will be $ 25 right up until ride time , If we run out of t-shirts we will order you one

The Ride will start at 9am from the Food Bank of Northern Indiana

The ride will tour several gardens and end up back at The Food Bank where we will have a Cookout with Hamburgers or Veggie Burgers

Most stops will have water and some will have snacks
There will be a truck following the ride in case anyone has a problem and needs a ride to the finish.
We will have written directions for everyone and ride leaders to help make sure everyone knows the way.
We have also marked most of the the route with green arrows on the road telling you which way to go

For more info
www.tourdeunity.blogspot.com

or call 574-315-4361

Unity Story

A e-mail from a new Garden Leader
Hi Sara,

I am SO very sorry that I am just sending you this now, over a week after we had our big planting event for the garden. Attached are 5 pictures from our big day and we have many more here if you are interested (I just don't want this stuck in cyber space).

 The planting went wonderfully. Mitch provided us with a great variety of plants and seeds so we now have 2 boxes that each have tomatoes and peppers, one box with cucumbers, one box with egg plants, and one box with green beans. We also have one little box with a sign and we planted zinnia seeds in it.

 Today I looked and we have 13 little green bean seedlings growing! I also have an intern and a senior aide prepping the area around the boxes to be completely mulched because the grass was destroyed after a plumbing project this summer.

 

 Thank you and Mitch SO much for including us in the Unity Garden movement. It is a really awesome opportunity and we are excited and grateful to be involved.

 My work e-mail is rebekah.deline@redcross.org and so you can catch me there if you have any questions.

Thanks!

 Rebekah

Community Plots

Last year Unity Gardens toyed with the idea of Community Plots at The LaSalle Square Unity Garden. Traditionally the garden has been open to everyone to harvest . Since we did not want to get away from our roots we had new water put in a area far from the open garden. Last summer we had a few takers for the community plots , and just fair results . So not to ever fail at a mission we decided bigger and better was the way to go. So we wrote a grant for a garden to market/ educational area complete with raised beds, composters, fence , shed, and more . With mostly word of mouth the community plots have taken off . We were looking at doing 6 to 8 people , but the number is at 16 right now , plus a plot for the Jr. Master Gardeners . In addition we have a season extender bed , straw bale garden bed. a Handicap Access bed , 3 different compost stations. , and more to come. What is clear to me is the diversity of people coming together to work in the garden. This out weighs even the healthy food that will come from these plots. We have a ND professor, and his wife from China, a family from Beacon Heights Apts , School Teacher, Landscape Architect, Saint Mary's Social Justice Professor, Jr. Master Gardeners , A guy named Kevin that just Showed up , Bruce who works at Goodwill , Master Gardeners, An IU South Bend intern ,  and I am sure I missed a few. I am so excited to see this grow and take off like a rocket. Growing healthy food , making friends , and learning that's what this is all about. What a great project !!