Hope to see you there!

At Festival Beach Community Garden, our focus is not only on the plants, structures, and people in the garden, but it is also on the community that surrounds us. We hope to welcome the garden’s neighbors and share messages about gardening and healthy living to all, especially the youth of our area.

This entry is a 2011 recap by Regina about one of the first tours in the garden for kindergarten and pre-kindgarten children from Sanchez Elementary.

The tour went wonderful. The children were so very excited to be in the garden. We went on a search for pumpkins. Although we never found any pumpkins, they were excited to see the cotton, okra, herbs and other types of vegetables growing. They actually enjoyed the tool shed too. We played a game of “What is this tool used for”. It’s amazing what excites kids of this age group. Libby and Christina were on hand and helped a great deal. Christina offered some of her squash blossoms for tasting. Julio also gave a tour to a group of pre-kindergarteners.

At the end they sat at the picnic benches and drew pictures of things they saw in the garden. I gave the teacher 4 packages of seeds that were in the shed. They will be used for their garden at school.

A new set of children from Sanchez visited the garden again in 2012 and they were able to find a new pumpkin patch that was planted with them in mind. In addition to the garden tour, they were treated to a few smelly moments in front of the compost bins to learn about composting.

We look forward to continuing this effort to educate students.

There’s a lot happening in the garden from the physical structures being created to the efforts to educate others about gardening.

For this series, we’ll start at one of the main features of our garden – the main pedestrian gate which welcomes gardeners, volunteers, and visitors into Festival Beach Community Garden.  It will also serve as a welcome to our series, giving us entrance to explore what’s inside the garden.

Below Daniel, the creator of the garden gate, shares his thoughts on the entrance and tells us more about the composition of the door from a carpentry and artist’s perspective.  Daniel said that in designing the gate, he tried to keep in mind a few factors. He wanted it to be big enough for people to pass through comfortably, but also wanted to keep the costs down and the engineering required from becoming too much.

The rest of this entry is from Daniel –    

The door dimensions are 49 3/4 by 99 inches. I chose one inch thickness for the boards to result in two inches overall thickness which is a little more than commercial exterior doors. The wood is Eastern Texas Aromatic Cedar. It was milled by Stephen Wusterhausen at Environmental Mill in Elgin. It is a hardwood with a reputation for stability and weather resistance, is attractive and is grown here in Texas.

I drew different shapes and asked for feedback from various members. Nick liked the semicircle a lot. So it was.

At first it wasn’t to be as tall as it is but the boards were a little longer than I was expecting. In talking with John he said tall is good. I therefore maximized the height.

As for the construction itself, the main slab consists of tongue and grooved 1 x 8 1/2 s edge glued. Then drawn and cut out. The rails and wrap on the other side are laminated with waterproof adhesive to the slab. Any joint within the rails and wrap were biscuit joined. These aspects and screwing as opposed to nails all add together for maximum durability. All bevels were hand planed.

The front (Waller side) was left rough sawn with a passing of coarse sandpaper to remove fibers. The front was to be as simple as possible with the verticality of the boards to emphasize tallness. The rear of the slab had been planed smooth for maximum effectiveness of the glue bonding between the slab and rails.

The window feature is a combination of safety and aesthetics. The safety aspects are to see what’s on the other side during operation and to reduce the wind affect which can be considerable on a big door. The aesthetic is somewhat personal as I’ve always loved the art of Maxfield-Parrish and his enchanting landscapes and characters. I’ve wished I could walk into his paintings and experience such worlds. As I walk up to the gate I see an image through the window. To me it is as a painting and upon opening the door I get to ‘enter the painting’. Alternatively the window is the exact shape and proportion of the door and is placed in a way to give the impression of a tunnel with the window being the far end. This has shades of Alice in Wonderland. Whichever suits your fancy.

How to unlock the door from either side without a key was not immediately apparent. The sliding slab of steel with a hole for the combo lock was chosen.  The large dimension of 3/8 by 2 1/2 inches was chosen for strength over the 2 1/2 gap between the door and post. This large gap serves two purposes.  One is for the lock to have room toflip over and the other is to avoid pinched hands or fingers from a windblown door. There is a threaded rod bolted through the slab with the wooden handles bored out and screwed directly on.

The space from the ground to door bottom is 3 inches. Enough to avoid feet from being pinched by a windblown door but close enough for security. I leveled the ground to that 3 inches throughout the entire door swing for the same reason.

All of the wood has been generously coated with an Australian timber oil which is mainly linseed oil with UV screen and some amber coloring to add to the richness of the color and to inhibit graying.

Thanks to Nick and Will for helping dig holes and setting the posts and again to Nick the next weekend for helping to load up and hanging the door.

The chimes are recycled xylophone bars chosen in a mode I picked out on a keyboard. They’re tied up with recycled guitar strings. I have other notes available if we’d like to change modes sometime.

How long did it take to make it? My involvement was close to 40 hrs of actually doing things plus Nick and Will’s involvement.

That’s the little story of the gate.

Yesterday a group of 8 from SMU Alternative Breaks, a student organization at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, volunteered at the garden helping us pull weeds, mulch, turn compost, and more. The group is spending their Fall Break doing direct service at community gardens in Austin and learning about building healthy communities, sustainability, and increasing access to healthy food. FBCG thanks the students for giving their time to help our community.

This workshop will teach participants about the biological processes that turn dirt into soil and the impact of tap water on soil organisms. Topics will include: the differences between dirt and soil; the five functions of soil; the relationship between living soil and healthy plants; and the chemicals found in tap water. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of ways to minimize use of tap water and harvest and store rainwater.

Katherine Pace is an historian with extensive background in permaculture garden design and urban food production. In addition to volunteering with food justice organizations in Australia and California, she has designed, installed, and maintained “guerilla” community gardens on city lands. She has also designed and installed gardens at the offices of various community organizations, and she has built low-tech rainwater and gray water systems at private residences.

This workshop is free and open to the public. RSVP’s will help us ensure we have enough hand-outs. Workshop will be held in English with Spanish translation available.

For more info or to RSVP please contact tk: tikisone@gmail.com.

•    run a garden & tool orientation with them,
•    done a scavenger hunt,
•    begun some arts-based work (including making fairy houses!),
•    completed a tool-use workshop,
•    worked on composting and mulching, and
•    even begun to talk about planting with the three sisters.

They’ve shared so many brilliant things with us!   They’ve talked about their knowledge of value of compost,  understanding of nitrogen, shared what sorts of vegetables they grow (and are culturally important to them), and how, of course,  every week they talk about how much they love being in the garden.  Infact, one of our young people told us, “I love being here so much, I don’t ever want to leave!!!”

If you would like to support these programs by volunteering to help maintain the plots, making a contribution for supplies, or offering workshops for the youth participants please contact tk at: tikisone@gmail.com.

We will be continuing to work on these classes through the end July.  We are also planning on running two other education programs; Health is Wealth- that will center on supporting community wellness through arts engagement and education, and, a workshop on Water Conservation.  For updates please continue to check out this blog, or view the FBCG by clicking HERE:

We hope you enjoy the pics above as a preview of some of the work we’ve been doing, including some of our completed fairy houses.

Hope to see all of you in the garden, soon.  We are looking forward to a productive and fun summer at Festival Beach Community Garden.  Best, tk tunchez (tikisone@gmaill.com)  and Armando Salinas (armandosalinas.mando@gmail.com)

This inspired them to draw a “Thank You” picture to everyone who helped grow them.  It’s been a magical experience for her and her friend to see the development of our gardens over the year we’ve been members.  Once they ate two whole cucumbers, came home and didn’t even want birthday cupcakes — they liked the fresh organic cucumbers more!

So thanks to all the carrot growers!

Jolyn and Jay.  B19

Asha's Drawing (7 y/o)

Asia's Drawing (7 y/o)

Come to one of the above scheduled reorientation sessions  - All are invited!

1. Fill out and sign new contracts for 2012 (required by the Parks Department).
2.  Pay plot rental fees for 2012 by Jan. 30: $35.00.

You can also:

• Meet and visit other gardeners.
• Learn about plans for the coming year.
• Hear about and get involved in current projects.
• Enjoy the outdoors!

Some folks are planning to bring food and refreshment.

Attendance is not required, but we hope everyone can come for ONE of the days.