You'll soon be able to pick all the free fresh produce you need at home thanks to the efforts of many volunteers in the Kiowa community. Consider volunteering yourself.
Earlier this year you might have read in the Newsgram about Kiowa businessman Jeff Bryan's plan to build a box garden and sell produce to the grocery store and local restaurants. He would give any profit to the South Barber Ministerial Alliance for the food bank.
He changed those plans for this first summer. Bryan said this garden is open to the public in the local area to come and pick what produce they need at home. Volunteer Debbie Davis said no grants were available this year for the garden. She commended Bryan and his wife Amy for paying all the costs to make this community garden a reality this summer.
Bryan's only requirement is that people weigh their produce in the building he remodeled with the scales inside. "This is so we can gauge the production of the garden," Bryan said.
He explained going with the community garden rather than his original idea is for other people to realize "Proof of concept. I really believe in it. I'm going to build more."
Bryan hauled in special soil to put in the boxes for optimal growing potential; Gorilla Construction gave him a price break on rock for the walkways; Wells Paint Service painted the building for free; Mike Coggins spread rock, graded the area, and will do what's needed to help finish, etc.; FFA and some other student volunteers helped spread rock and put dirt in containers.
He wants to make sure the automatic watering system works correctly and also the planting dirt is the right combination.
Davis complimented the "tremendous efforts by the FFA and other volunteer students for their community service. This gives students a feeling they are a part of this entire community project. The kids worked really, really hard. Mr. Hutson (FFA instructor and advisor) is invaluable. He stayed late and finished projects. His wife Erica and sons, Hayden and Grady, helped."
Davis continued, "Jeff and Amy have done a ton of the physical work. They set the boxes, put down black paper and put in the sprinkler system."
Davis wants everyone to know that Kiowa's Public Library has four copies of the square foot gardening book available to check out and learn more.
"My daughter Rochelle has done this (method of gardening) for 12 years. It's been very successful for her," Davis said.
Davis has a computer program, a garden planner, through the Farmer's Almanac. It tells what to plant next to one another, recommended depth of planting various types of vegetables; the proper distance apart to plant; advice like don't plant tomatoes in the same place each year; takes the hassle out of how many plants to buy, etc.
While Bryan Chevrolet is donating this garden to the Kiowa community, he said, "Now my focus is going back to `Clean up Kiowa' and we need tax-deductible donations."
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