MAKE A RAIN BARREL! April 15, 2010

Join us this weekend at our 2nd Annual Earth Day Celebration (starts at 9am) and you can make your own rain barrel for only $40!

The City of Atlanta will be providing workshop & materials.

When: This Saturday, April 17

Time: 11am

Cost: $40

*Pre-registration required: Call Jamila 404-693-1742

2nd Annual West End Earth Day Celebration! April 5, 2010

The Friends of the West End Park will be hosting our wonderful 2nd Annual Earth Day Celebration!

THIS WEEKEND!!! 2nd ANNUAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATION at WEST END PARK!!!

• Participate in ‘Edible Landscaping’ project!
• Make your very own rain barrel for only $40! Pre-register by contacting Jamila: 404-693-1742
• Children activities include creating garden art, face-painting &  plantings
• Build new benches for the park
• Plant new trees
• Mulch existing trees
• Clean playground mulch and overall park!

WISH LIST:
-Fruit or Flowering trees
-Gardening Soil
-Playground mulch

Starts @ 10am! Don’t miss it!
West End Park (Oak/Lucille)

I’d like to get involved, how can I help?

• Cash donations can help buy much needed supplies!
• If you’re knowledgeable in areas of  reusing, gardening, water harvesting, children’s environmental education and art…consider facilitating a workshop for others. Email: yomara@9to5.org!
• Donate a tree: we’d like fruit trees but a spring blooming flower tree would bring much needed color to the park. You can even make an art plaque to label your tree!
• Volunteer: We’ll need volunteers for set-up, during the event & clean-up. Please consider picking up a shift even if it’s just 45 minutes! We need you!

For more information, to give a donation or sign-up for a volunteer shift contact:

• Jamila Norman: jamilanorman@yahoo.com
• Yomara Velez: yomaravelez@yahoo.com

This event can be a wonderful community event but we need you to get involved!

Friends of West End Park attend Park Pride Conference

Park Pride Conference

Friends of the West End Park represent! I only had a chance to take Cici's picture before my camera's battery ran out. Jamila, Sally, Chin and I were also there to represent for our park.

Walking through the park… March 29, 2010

Imagining how beautiful it would be to fix this wall...

Yes-she agrees! "We need to fix this...rufff-rufff!"

FRIENDS OF THE WEST END UPDATE! March 10, 2010

Friends of the West End Park met Friday, March 5th, 2010. There’s lots of exciting stuff coming up at the park, here are a couple of updates:

• At our last park clean-up we found contaminated mulch: pieces had nails, peeled paint and large pieces of construction wood. I took pictures and I wrote a letter to the Park Commissioner. I must report that the City responded quickly and did a GREAT JOB removing the mulch from the park. I’m also very pleased that new trees and bushes were planted in the park. I’d like to express my gratitude to our Park Commissioner: Mr. Paul Taylor, Park Pride’s Executive Director: George Dusenbury, Director of Community Building: Ayanna Williams and Representative Cleta Winslow! Thanks for taking care of our park and responding to our concerns! We couldn’t be happier!
• At our last meeting we discussed Earth Day at West End Park. We’ve decided to do a two day celebration at the park: April 15 & 16, 2010. We’ll be making benches for the park, painting the basketball court, making new planters, planting trees and improving the children’s garden area. We will build a bulletin board to keep community members informed on upcoming events, activities, etc. We also hope to install pegs to keep cars off the turf. Our group would like to encourage children in the neighborhood to donate a plant to their “Children’s Garden”.  We’ll be creating garden art to label their plants. We hope to have workshops for community members and children. We’ll keep you posted!
• In addition to Earth Day, we hope to host our 2nd Annual Spring Egg Hunt on April 3 @ 10am. Last year, this event was a wonderful success! We hope you’ll join us for a morning of fun in the park!
• As the weather gets warm, please come out and enjoy your park, play tennis, participate in clean-ups, etc! Lets continue to maintain & improve our park!

REUSE: Children’s Floor Playmats February 22, 2010

A good idea, glue letters to blocks and make your own letter stamps-pretty cool. Original post from: http://bkids.typepad.com/

LOCATION CHANGED! VISIONING FOR OUR PARK CONTINUES February 3, 2010

HAPPY NEWS:

We’re going to continue our visioning and planning process for the West End Park!

The 1st meeting: this Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Location:  Grounds Coffee House

From 6 to 7 pm

REUSE: An eraser

Original Post from Dollar Store Crafts

REUSE: PAPER January 30, 2010

Use junk mail, left over wrapping paper, food wrappers, old magazines, cut little hearts or shapes that make your heart happy and arrange in frames. Sounds silly but it can be beautiful and a great way to recycle…

Source: Sarah + Bendrix (flickr). These are for sale on etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarahandbendrix

Source: Sarah + Bendrix (flickr)

STARTING YOUR SPRING GARDEN… January 29, 2010

Starting Your Spring Garden
FROM Truly Living Well (www.trulylivingwell.com)

A local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) managed by Mr. K. Rashid Nuri…

Mr. K. Rashid Nuri Now is the time to plan and build an organic spring garden at your home. What is the first step? Determine the best place for your garden. The garden should be located in an area that is fully exposed to the sun. You will pay more attention to your garden the nearer it is to the house. Make sure that water is readily available. The single most important factor in creating a successful garden is soil preparation. I call it dirt making. Get the soil right.  If you create good healthy soil, the plants which grow in that soil will also be healthy. Healthy plants are disease resistant. Begin soil preparation by gently turning the soil. If this is the first time the land is being used to grow food, a tiller may prove helpful. Too much tillage destroys soil structure. Subsequent soil preparation can be done with a spade or garden fork. After opening the soil add copious amounts of organic material such as compost, leaf mold, well rotted sawdust or decomposed animal manure. You can make your own compost or purchase it from most garden supply stores. Compost is the key to successful gardening. Compost added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. When mixed with compost, clay soils are lightened, and sandy soils retain water better. Mixing compost with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants. Make beds in the garden that are separated by walkways. You do not want to walk in the area that you plant with vegetables. Walking on a vegetable bed compacts the soil and retards plant growth. Utilize the garden space wisely. Select crops you will eat and enjoy. You must like what you plant or the garden space and the food will both be wasted. Decide what you want to plant and where you will plant it. Know what you will plant after the spring season crop is finished. Southern exposure has the most light. Tall crops should be planted on the north and west side of the garden to prevent shading of smaller plants.