Out and about July and August

On July 28th Natalie participated in the City of Austin’s Local Food and Climate Change Think Tank. On August 18th she is at the CDC Summit in Chicago presenting our community gardening model. We'll post news of how it goes!

New plots available at gardens

This June we partnered with United Way and WIC OP to increase the number of raised community gardens at both gardens due to our waiting list of gardeners in both Taylor and Georgetown. We will build out 18 new beds at Heritage and 10 new gardens at Taylor.

Farmer's Market and Even Start

On June 5th we took produce to Farmer’s Market. It was 100 plus degrees and 40 mile an hour hot winds with sand blowing in everyone’s eyes. Needless to say, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. But customers were wonderful and very generous to their community garden (tomatoes were in short supply too).

On June 10th Liz Keith and Natalie Vreeland went to Taylor Even Start and taught parents and kids the fine art of cooking with herbs and fresh seasonal produce.

Invitation to CDC Summit in Chicago

On June 4th folks from the Center of Disease Control toured Heritage Community Garden. They seemed to enjoy the visit very much. And, as a result an invitation was given for Natalie Vreeland to go to the CDC Summit in Chicago August 18th. They liked that Block funds were used to leverage other funds for the continued success of a health district program.

Community Gardener Coordinator Interviewed

On May 27th Jeananne Elkins from Texas A&M interviewed Natalie Vreeland, Community Garden Coordinator, for a state wide Community Garden practicum. Texas A&M is looking for model programs to establish community garden in and around the Bryan-College Station area. She had interviews in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. She was very complimentary and noted that our program was truly model worthy.

Heritage Community Gardens Open House

On May 19th Heritage Community Gardens had an Open House and tour for Expert Gardening Association of Williamson County and the Public. We had a terrific turn-out of 30 guests. Year to date we have donated 535 lbs of fresh organic produce to The Caring Place, Meals on Wheels and area senior facilities.

Heritage Garden Featured in Local Newspaper

On May 4, 2008 the Heritage Community Garden was featured in the Williamson County Sun. The story focused on our fieldtrips we host every spring for the Purl Elementary pre school children. The field trips were completed on April 29th. We had fun with 180, 4 and 5 year olds. Spring is a big gardening time. We had a big increase in the community garden and added 25 new gardeners. We created more in-ground gardens. This is the best tomato year I have ever had. We will have a wonderful crop of near perfect tomatoes, plus onions, squash, cucumbers, okra and peppers.