CEDAR KEY COMMUNITY GARDEN
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  WORK PARTIES

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Sue Colson and Heath Davis, city commissions, and Mandy Offerle (center), owner of lot.
Community Work Days are the mainstay of the Community Garden.  This website  page will tell you: first, about our most recent Work Day; second, our initial Work Days when we established the garden; third, follow-up Work Days that continue to occur as we need/want them.  Each day is laden with good company, food, drink, and many smiles.

2019 NOVEMBER  9 WORK DAY

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GARDENERS RAISE CAIN…RAISE HELL….OOPS, RAISE BEDS!
GARDENERS  RAISE BEDS NOVEMBER 10, 2019
 
As the Cedar Key Community Garden’s newest gardener prefers a raised bed because of his “not so great back,” the community of gardeners met on Saturday, November 9, to raise his, and one other ground level bed, to waist height.  No mean feat that.
 
The bed raising requires substantial planning, expertise, lots of muscle, patience, and, of course, camaraderie and moral support. The planning and supplying of materials, lumber, screening, tools, electricity, soil, and more were ably supplied by Tom Deverin and Joe Hand.    The lots of muscle, more expertise, and camaraderie came from Frank Patillo, Bill Seyfarth, John McPerson and his visiting brother, Sam Gibbs, “Gino,” and Beth Dieveney.   Moral support was amply supplied by Linda and Colin Dale, Becky LaFountain, Lois Benningoff, and Brenda.
 
While the bed raising group dislodged the extant two ground-level beds, turned them upside down, built new bases of screening, scaffolding, and legs, others accomplished some cleanup work.  Frank Patillo, Bill Seyfarth, and Tom Deverin trimmed the hedges along the Second Street border, thus allowing more light during the winter months and a welcoming glimpse into the garden from the street.  More clean up was in the capable hands of Becky and Colin and Linda.  Lois and Becky cleaned up the path through the length of the Garden, picking up weeds and allowing the shell base to reshow itself. 
 
Pat Deverin thinned and weeded the community bed, allowing the soon-to-be-ready transplants to flourish.  The Dales, Becky, Mandy Offerle, and others took some time to weed and care for their own beds. 
 
Not a moment from nine am until noon was wasted.  The two newly reconstructed beds were set in place, leveled, refilled with soil, and one was replanted.  
 
A most productive day it was.   The weather could not have been more perfect; the company could not have been better.
 
*******



2018 DECEMBER 1 WORK DAY
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NEITHER RAIN, NOR CHILL, NOR GLOOM OF CLOUDS,* WILL STOP THE GARDENERS
December 2, 2018

The Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center staff provided a welcoming setting yesterday for the Cedar Key Community Gardeners who had much to do but were temporarily rained out of their own territory, the Garden itself.

The Chamber’s hot coffee, the Deverin’s cake, the Offerle’s fruit, and Dale’s chocolate bon-bons helped make the tasks as delightful as the company and the small and cozy setting.

The group filled seed packets for the Tom Deverin-inspired Cedar Key Community Garden’s Seed Give-Away Program. The program operates out of a station at the front, south, end of the Garden. A sign there invites visitors to take, plant, and enjoy as many as three different kinds of vegetable or flower seeds; if they wish to make donations, a receptacle is there to facilitate the exchange.   The donations have been wonderfully successful; they have allowed the Community Garden to pay for its insurance and its water bills for the past year.

The camera man had an obviously bad day behind the lens, thus only two pictures and those two failed to capture at least six or seven folks.
*The real, often quoted, but unofficial Post Office motto is:  Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. 


2018 NOVEMBER 7 WORK DAY
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Some twenty Cedar Key Community Gardeners gathered Wednesday morning from 9 am to noon to spruce up the Cedar Key Community Garden after a long, hot summer.  Thinking November 7 would be cooler than that summer, the group was surprised at the 85-degree weather.  Not a cloud was in the sky, however; it was a beautiful day.
 
In addition to tending to their own beds, the gardeners, under the leadership of Tom Deverin, also tended to communal garden needs.  Bill Rucker, the man with the power tools, trimmed the Second Street hedges and the trellis’s vines and brush beginning to obscure the sun from the west beds.  Denise Feiber and Renee Schneck hauled away his cuttings.
 
The arduous task of cleaning up and weeding the center path that runs from the south to the north of the Garden was managed by Colin Dale, Russ and Peg Hall, Renee and Dennis Schneck ,  and Denise.  

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Becky LaFountain, Colin, and Kathy Sturr tackled Carol Wilcox’s weedy bed in preparation for her arrival.  The bed continued beautiful orange gaillardia and  huge yellow sunflowers all summer long.
 
The flower beds beneath the two center palm trees were weeded by Beth Mizell, Mandy, and Kathy.  Among other tasks, Pat Deverin set herself upon the task of planting more vegetables to be transplanted soon.
 
Joe Hand and Gene Heiga multitasked.  The two leveled three beds that had not settled squarely.  Despite buzzing wasps threatening them, the two managed to deconstruct the colorful six eight-foot banners.  Pat offered to give them a wash and dye job.  The three-year old banners served the garden well with color and accent.
 
 Gene and Tom got the wearying job of filling load upon load of mulch for Renee Schneck and Mandy Offerle to spread along the sides of the newly weeded and cleaned center path.
 
Denise, Gini Barrs, Sue Colson, Marie Lewis,  Lisa Mitchell, and others worked tirelessly through the morning, sweeping, clipping, planting, and getting to know everyone else.

​INITIAL WORK DAYS 

It took four Work Day events and 50 volunteers during two months ​to transform a vacant lot to a thriving community garden.
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FIRST WORK DAY  Ground Breaking (December 8, 2015)
Twenty-plus volunteers worked eight hours cleaning up the lot, giving it curb appeal, and clearing the property line. Also two raised garden beds were constructed and planted. Some fifty nursery plants were used to landscape the garden. An amazing lunch was served.
Click here for the Cedar Key News invitation article.​

Click here for the Cedar Key News thank you article with pictures.

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SECOND WORK DAY - Trellis  (January 4,2016)

Eighteen  volunteers built a lovely trellis on the western property line of the garden. The lattice provides a substrate for climbing vines and garden art.


Click here for Cedar Key News article.
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THIRD WORK DAY  - Build 16 Garden Tables (January 21, 2016)

Ten volunteers built 16 garden tables in one day with assembly line efficiency.


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FOURTH WORK DAY - Build 5 ground boxes, fill with compost (Jan 28, 2016)

Fifteen  volunteers built five ground box gardens, finished the raised garden beds, and filled all 21 garden beds with compost .

FOLLOW-UP WORK DAYS

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​2016 JANUARY 13  WORKDAYS 
​There were two work days scheduled at the Cedar Key Community Garden, January 26th and 27th at 10 am. The primary goal is to build 17 raised beds, put them in place and fill them with compost.  Carpenter skills are not required, all beds will be precut, there is a job for everyone. There are also plants to be planted if you prefer to do that.  The goals are to have 20 plus beds ready to be rented starting February 1, 2016.  A list of people wanting both table top and ground level beds has been compiled on a first come-first served basis.  If you would like to rent a bed, please, call 540-392-5969.  The yearly rental of a 4' x 10' bed is $50.
​Tom

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2018 JANUARY 6 WORKDAY
At 40-degree temperatures, January 6 necessitated  two work parties: the seed-packet fillers sat n the warmth of  Natures Landing meeting room provided by Manager Tina Ryan; the hearty diggers, movers, and fixers spent the morning in the Garden.    Seed packets were filled with marigold, galardia, sunflower, zinnia, kale, and white daisy seeds.  The heartier lot accomplished much:   moved banners from spots where they were not seen to places where they blocked the wind; they replanted ten shrubs / trees from too-shady spots to sunlit spaces; they placed cardboard and shells around the shrubs and trees needing water capture.. 
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Location

Email us at

ckcg2015@gmail.com
  • HOME
  • HISTORY
  • GARDEN PARTIES
    • WORK PARTIES
  • GARDEN IN PICTURES
  • BUILD A BED
  • TOM'S TIPS
  • ART GALLERY
  • VISITOR COMMENTS
  • GET INVOLVED