Construction of this urban farm for West Montgomery began on Saturday April 10th 2010. At 7 a.m. I got to the site and converted my paper site plan onto the ground with a can of spray paint. It was as if I had a huge pencil and could draw anything I wanted to, and then simply erase it by running foot over the painted line smearing the paint pack into the native soil. At this point the 2 single family home city lots, totaling about 1 acre of land, were tilled and free of any weeds. This tilling took place earlier in the week, and was done by a local man named James Tellis who brought his tractor with bush-hog, and tiller. After I finished painting out all the paths and areas where posts were to be dug, I hung tight awaiting the arrival of Mr. David Jordan, who was bringing to us 22 cubic yards of recycled concrete that was salvaged from his landfill. David was excited to help us out, as this is his first opportunity to use the concrete in this fashion. David dumped the load and headed on out. Next, our friend Jessie showed up from the City of Montgomery with his skid steer ready to dig some holes and trenches for us. Jessie is a really good skid steer driver by the way. At 9 o'clock all of our generous volunteers started showing up. All kinds of people from all over Montgomery, most of whom I had recently met and maybe only talked to on the phone. This was a great mix of people bringing all kinds of valuable ideas to the table. We began work. Of the tasks were digging holes for posts that held up our muscadine and blackberry trellis system, construction of a 25' x 10' shed to collect rainwater, and moving of recycled concrete gravel across the site to create our pathways. We got the majority of these tasks accomplished, and everyone worked well together and learned from each other. We did not quite finish the shed construction, so myself, Byron Berry (Phoenix Homes), and Oscar Boykin came back on Sunday and got a little closer to having it finished. As part of our team, we were blessed to have Oscar Boykin. Oscar is a young adult who grew up in the neighborhood and now owns Arm and Hammer Home Repair, and was able to interpret to us the feedback from the surrounding community who will be using this garden. All throughout the day people were stopping in to say hello or driving by looking at us but most never really had a lot to say. Oscar assured us that they liked what they saw and are eager to get involved with plantings and maintaining the garden. He also said that we must provide a big barrel of hot sauce to go with all the collards from the garden. Ha Ha. Also with us on this day was Ms. Times who was celebrating her 88th birthday. She is one of the founding members of this neighborhood. A sweet lady, who offered nothing but encouragement as I enjoyed a hotdog with her over lunch. Our lunch was provided by Mrs. Voncile Gregory who I refer to as "team mom." She is a great source of strength for me, as well as this whole project. During the day Saturday I had several discussions with my new friend Joe about using recycled pallets to make our composting bend. Today he scavenged around and found about 20, called me up, and I went and rescued them from the dumpster. I am pretty fired up about building a composting structure out of these. Also I have had several conversations with my brother Philip who will be donating his gas grill that is no longer functional for gas grilling. We will cut the legs of this guy and strategically mount to our shed on site so that the neighborhood will have a functioning charcoal grill to use at any events in this garden space. I am currently having conversations with my friend Taylor about how to construct our raised beds as this is our next big project. He has done this before while previously living in South Carolina.
The next big day at this community space is going to be April 24th. 20 + volunteers will be coming to help on this day from St. James UMC and other various civic groups. Of the tasks will be, construction of a wall (4’ tall x 35’ long) that Enid Probst with E & M Mosaics will use to do a huge tile mosaic with the kids, construction of raised beds, installation of a gutter system and roof for our structure, construction of 10+ rain barrels for rain water collection, construction of composting structure, planting of fruiting shrubs and vines, and planting of all veggies the neighborhood participants would like to grow. We look forward to seeing you there!! If you need directions there is a map under the garden link of http://www.art4edu.info/. We are on the corner of Emerson street and Broughton Street off Rosa Parks.
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