photos la manzanilla community garden logo        
 
Concha Molida and Calle Manglares. Click here for directions
First plan draftla manzanilla garden plan        

October 29, 2009
The first cleaning of the lot took 3 days, one man with a machete. The plan is to clean up the trash (including a chair) and large rocks and have the front half of the lot tilled. The goal is 20 plots in 2009, all located in the front west side of the lot.
la manzanilla garden view
La Manzanilla garden view 2
View to the north View northeast

October 31, 2009
A group of people got together at 7:00 a.m. (before it got too hot) to clean trash and large debris. It only took about an hour and we removed a trash can full of plastic bottles, 2 bags full of trash and 2 chairs.

Next step: Trees trimmed and site roto-tilled.

November 17, 2009  
Lot has been disked and cleared of most of the undergrowth, water was installed this week and 4 cubic yards of grow mix was delivered. Second cleaning of the lot to remove weeds and large sticks and rocks. This cleaning yielded a large commerical sized truck load of debris. Next came the water line.

 

 cleaning

View after the lot was disked cleaned by a machine. Hope to layout the beds this weekend!

 
November 22, 2009  
A neighboor donated some rocks and we were able to build 10 beds. Each bed had one bag of chicken manure compost mixed in to it. Each plot is approximately 8 X 4 ft. A local woodworker donated the sawdust for the paths.
la manzanilla garden plot garden plot with manure
December 2, 2009  
We let the plots and the compost cool off for about a week. We only have city water on this block 3-4 days a week so we had to buy a water storage unit and build a stand for it. The construction took about 4 days. The rotoplast (water storage unit) has to be elevated so we have enough pressure to feed the hoses. The same week as the stand was being built several of us met and put up some chicken wire and planted bougainvillea's to help the chickens out!
plots
  fence and flowers
December 5, 2009  
First seeds in! Saturday early morning a few people planted the first seeds. One couple has decided on using the square foot gardening method. I had planned to transplant a Basil plant we started from seed a few weeks ago but when I went to our backyard to dig it out of the pot...it had been eaten down to just a lonely stalk but some creature of the night!

We've had some very unusal weather for the last few days- lots of rain. We'll just have to wait and see what happens to our seeds. Thanks to everyone who donated seeds! Looks like we might have to do a few rounds of plantings.
January 6, 2010  
Lots of things coming up! The green netting is to keep iguana's and bugs from eating the plants. So far it's worked! We have tomatoes, beans, carrots, cilantro, lettuce, radish, corn, herbs and flowers all started.
 

February and March, 2010

We've been climbing through a makeshift barbed wire gate for the last few months.  Our neighbors Cathie and John donated the installation and materials of a new metal gate! They said they like having the garden as a neighbor but felt bad watching us scramble through barded wire to get in and tend our plots.

   

 

 

    
  website design and hosting www.VisitLaManzanilla.com