‘I Can Grow’ at Promise of Peace in Dallas
Jessie Atchison Burpee Home Gardens Brand Manager, 2008-2010
Last Friday and Saturday, the Burpee Home Gardens team was in East Dallas, Texas, helping turn a formerly vacant lot into a thriving community garden as part of our “I Can Grow” campaign to empower newer gardeners to get their hands dirty and grow some of their own food. What a weekend!
We were proud to work with a very cool community garden called Promise of Peace and its forward-thinking executive director, Elizabeth Dry, to provide materials and Burpee Home Gardens veggie and herb plants for 20 brand-new raised beds in this urban gardening oasis. Not long ago, the Promise of Peace garden was an abandoned lot – until Elizabeth and her team of volunteers decided to turn it into someplace that would bring the community together. Helping build, fill, and plant the gardens was a real honor – and so much fun!
It was all part of the first annual Promise of Peace Eco Fest, and here were some of the highlights for the Burpee Home Gardens team:
- Helping neighborhood kids plant their very own “strawberry field” in one whole garden bed. They’d been dreaming of fresh strawberries!
- Talking with the 100+ folks from 9 surrounding neighborhoods who showed up to pitch in and plant … gardening really DOES bring people together.
- Seeing local officials, such as State Representative Allen Vaught, come out to support the garden. This is what community gardens need to thrive!
- Meeting the local hig
h school kids who came to volunteer their time. “We’re here almost every Saturday,” they said.
- And our No.1 favorite moment: Teaching an adult couple how to plant tomatoes in their very first vegetable patch (and watching their eyes get wide when we showed them how to “plant tomatoes deep”). It had always been their dream to have a garden, they said, and they never had the chance until the Promise of Peace garden opened up.
Gardening is something people can discover at any age – and it is awesome to be there for the beginning!
Want to see more of what we were up to at Promise of Peace? Check out our Facebook fan page or check us out on Twitter @BurpeeHG. Stay tuned for more “I Can Grow” news as the season progresses!