Veggie Tasting

In keeping with the mission of community building, and teaching healthy eating habits. Unity Gardens held an open house / veggie tasting at the LaSalle Branch Library. Bringing folks together to learn about Unity Gardens, collecting data on vegetables , and talking about healthy eating in a casual atmosphere. Spring has arrived early

The Dirt on Soil

The 3rd part of Unity Gardens 6 part series on growing a vegetable garden at The Potawatomi Conservatories was a sucess again. Each class has had over 40 people in attendence. The soil class hit a record high of 45 people attending. The class as always is very engaging, asking questions, and giving helpful tips. The survey's we are giving out are guiding us to plan some more classes. We are also thinking of re-running the series. Next week is a very hands on seed starting class were we will start plants for everyone to take home with them, and coming up in 2 weeks The Bontanical Society has a class on Orchids. Then the following week Phil Sutton with Purdue extension will be talking about garden pest, and then after that we wrap up the series with a class on garden maintence. After this series there will also be classes on Container gardening, Herbs , All about the top 12 Vegetables, and growing a Victory garden.

To learn more about the classes click the above on the events tab

Unity Gardens also needs your support to keep serving the community so if you would like to donate please see the donate button on the upper right side of blog to donate on line .

Friday at the JJC

More sign painting at The Juvinile Justice center Friday . Kim contacted us a while back looking for a project the kids could do in the winter. Sara came up with the idea to have them paint signs to put at the Unity Gardens. Its the 2nd week , and everyone is enjoying it. " We Are Growing More Than Vegetables Here "

Some upcoming stuff !!

Saturday Feb 5 at 10am class at the Potawatomi Conservatories . The class is on Soil & Soil Prep for your garden . This is part 2 of a 5 part series. on growing your garden , The class is free . If you missed the first class on Garden planning don't worry we are thinking of running the series over .
Feb 7 Sara will be hosting a Unity Gardens open at The LaSalle Branch Library from 2pm to 5pm Speaking about nutrition , and even bring some food to Sample .
**Also if you want to start a Unity Garden or just learn more about them Sara Stewart will be giving 2 presentations on Unity Gardens in Feb.
Feb 17th at 5:30 pm at the Potawatomi Conservatories
Feb 19th At 1pm At The LaSalle Branch Library
Free please come join us

St Mary's

In case you did not know Sara the Director of Unity Gardens also teaches community nursing at Saint Mary's College. Recently Saint Mary's was awarded a new designation of an " Engaged Campus " by the Carnegie Foundation.The designation is for campuses that excel in engaging the local or global community through Volunteerism, community based learning, community based research, internships, community partnerships, and faculty publications, consulting, and research. Sara was recognized for her work with Unity Gardens. Saint Marys had several groups out to the work in the gardens, and we are also working on an internship with them. Several others were recognized for their work. Its amazing how many Staff, and students work to better the community.

Unity Garden Class # 2

Another great turnout for todays growing a garden class. Today's class was on planning your vegetable garden. I went through a powerpoint, and after a short Q & A we moved on to a little planning your garden. Next weeks class is on soil & soil preparation. I love the fact that there was lots of questions. and good interaction. Great to see lots of gardeners getting together and enjoying the classes . The Conservatories are perfect for the classes nice warm, and green.

Signs Signs Everywhere Signs

This afternoon a local artist Tammy Wilcox lead a group a teens at the Juvenile Justice Center in South Bend in a Unity Gardens sign painting event. Unity Gardens is all about building community. This is a perfect example of bringing diverse people together to do something positive for the community.

Last year many of the Gardens were disappointed that we did not have time to put signs up in their Unity Garden . So with a chance of close to 50 gardens this year we thought we better get busy early with the painting. Just as each Unity Garden is a unique expression of the people who run their individual gardens the teens expressed themselves on each sign. We gave them very little guidance so each sign was their own vision of the gardens. This spring they will see their signs begin to show up on various Unity Gardens throughout the city. We have 2 more sign painting sessions planned the next 2 Fridays . It was truly a joy to watch this unfold. As always the afternoon started slow with the kids a little uncertain , but it soon changed. Thank Kim and the JJC for making this Happen.