Buckets of sweat went into preparing for Festival Beach Community Garden’s big first anniversary celebration! A par-tay was held from 10:00-1:00 at the garden featuring food, beverages and other goodies provided by neighborhood businesses and the greater Austin community. The garden is located at 35 Waller Street (at Clermont) in beautiful 78702.

We will update our website later today with photos from the event, but in the meantime, here’s a quick “then” and “now.”

1 Year Ago:

Today:

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Our mission statement includes this very important clause:

Create a gathering space that brings together diverse neighbors to encourage cooperation, collaboration and friendship.

We take very seriously the “community” part of our community garden. Over the course of our first year, we have made so many friends, worked elbow to elbow in our gardens and communal areas, and shared so much — from information and expertise to veggies from our gardens to laughs and frustrations and even tears. We’ve built such a strong garden community…well, we well up a little just thinking about it.

Thanks to Alberto Martinez, Austin American-Statesman, for these photos, taken in April to celebrate the first calendar year of gardening at Festival Beach Community Garden. We look forward to Saturday’s public party and the friends and faces we will add to our growing community!

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A gardener’s first-hand account of gardening at Festival Beach Community Garden. By Jolyn Janis, plot B19.

Our dive into the wonderful world of gardening began with tomatoes. Our family wanted fresh, local tomatoes in our kitchen all the time, but at $4.50 per pound and up, it wasn’t something we were ready to extend our budget on. This was before we got into the wonderful world of home gardening.

We started our first garden in 2009 when we moved from an apartment to a house and had a nice, sunny backyard. We consulted with the Natural Gardener about how to begin a garden, which seemed like a daunting task at first because no one in the family had ever had a garden — a successful one, that is. We built one with cinderblocks that was about 4’x4′ and we grew some vegetables and herbs. We had a hearty harvest, though some plants didn’t last very long and we ran into some unidentifiable plant predators. We knew we needed pro help when our collards looked like swiss cheese from an unknown insect. This gave us a taste of growing our own food and we were addicted to gardening. We found Festival Beach  shortly after and signed up for a plot, which was much bigger than what we were able to have at home. Just in time for summer, we got the call that there was a plot available and we chose our lovely plot, B19.

What I love most about community gardening at Festival Beach are the shared resources, which of course includes shovels, mulch and compost, but most importantly, knowledge, experience and advice that we’ve  receive from neighbor gardeners and resident experts. It’s truly invaluable. When we gardened at home and a bug would eat a particular plant, we would have no idea what it was or how to get rid of it organically. Now, through conversation and consultance at the community gardens, I know some amazingly simple organic solutions to control most insects and weather-related hindrances. We just started our garden at Festival Beach in March and have planted tomatoes, melons, string beans, cucumbers, basil (my personal super fave), eggplant, bell peppers, hot peppers and some mystery seeds which I think is lettuce now that it’s sprouting 🙂

The photos above show our garden’s development from March to present. Inspired by the gardens around the community, we plan to build a box in the unharvested area to contain all of our herbs. We live nearby and are currently building a home farther east, though we plan to keep our plot at Festival Beach because it is such an amazingly beautiful community that grows bigger and better every day. I look forward to our first harvest, the day when we can bring a big bowl, pull lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers from our own garden, add some dressing and enjoy a truly organic salad with our new friends.

Update: Garden is now back open.

The cottonwood tree that was the focal point, gathering place, shelter and spiritual guide of the Festival Beach Community Garden split down the middle and toppled over in May 2011 . City crews were called in, but postponed removing the felled tree and cutting down the part that remains standing because they didn’t have equipment that could handle the job. They returned the next week to finish the job.

The garden was closed until the the tree is removed. As it is now, the other half could fall at any moment, injuring anyone unlucky enough to be in its path. Nobody was hurt in the incident though it was a close call for Regina who had been working in the herb garden nearby. She heard a number of creaks and cracks, not realizing where they coming from. When she heard it one more time, she turned to see the tree slowly falling over. She ran out of its way to safety.

Many thanks to Alberto Martinez, Austin American-Statesman, for these photos. The first was shot in April during a potluck under the tree. Alberto shot the second today from the same vantage point.

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The one year anniversary celebration of our garden will be on Saturday, June 4th, 10:00am-1:00pm.

We want to celebrate being the first community garden established on Austin Parks and Recreation Department land through partnership with the Sustainable Food Center and a grant from the Austin Parks Foundation.

The anniversary event is free and will include samples of food and drinks from our local sponsors, activities for children, garden tours, information tables about gardening and sustainable living, music, and lots of laughter.  We will thank our community “partners” with a short ceremony from 11:00-11:30.

We invite gardeners, volunteers, and all Austinites to come help us celebrate our first year of gardening and partnerships.

Note:  Volunteers are needed for one-hour shifts at information, food, and children’s activity booths or to help with set-up or clean-up, so please contact Kaela Champlin at kaela.champlin <at> gmail.com or (512) 567-0740 to let her know what you can do.

Our volunteers and gardeners have been busy, busy, busy preparing the garden for spring plantings. A major accomplishment is the work on our beautiful new fence.

Our February workday brought out the muscles and the welding equipment. The team work resulted in a gorgeous new fence that will serve as a trellis for grapes and other vines! Thank you to everyone for this wonderful new addition to our garden!