Category Archives: News

2nd Annual Community Garden Potluck

Posted on August 27, 2017 by | Leave a comment

The Second Annual BAUUC Community Garden Potluck was held on Saturday, August 19th. Nineteen gardeners and guests from BAUUC and Bronson Street Community Gardens attended. It was a pleasure and honor to welcome and meet Julie Lambert, our former Director of Lifespan Religious Education and the founder of our community garden! Thank you, Verva and Mike, for inviting Julie today.

Terry Garner of Urban Harvest shared his expertise in a lively presentation on the essentials of successful gardening. Dawn Newcomer, Urban Harvest Community Gardens Coordinator, also attended our potluck and asked if we’re interested in being a “hub” community garden. Among other activities, we would distribute fall and spring vegetable seedlings to area gardens.

We enjoyed several interesting salads, home canned vegetables, tempura fried okra, homemade Meyer lemonade and Matcha green iced tea. We finished the meal with Siok Hong Chen-Sabot’s “vegetable” cake!

20170819_Cake

Everyone went home with a door prize. Jane Malin won the best prize – a rain barrel system donated by Urban Harvest. A big thank you to Bruce Meltzer and Paula Criswell for their special door prizes. It was a successful and enjoyable potluck and we look forward to our third one next year.

20170819_Gardners

Our next workday will be on September 16 from 8:30 until 11am. Please text Nathan at 713-502-3726 with questions or comments. Visit our Community Garden blog: https://bauucgarden.org

Article & Photos by Nathan Veatch

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Posted in Bragging Rights, News

Wintertime Gardening Work Day – Nov & Dec 2016

Posted on January 14, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Fall and winter gardens are appreciated by BAUUC community gardeners for several reasons: the weather is cooler, there are fewer insects, and the weeds and grass do not grow as fast. The weather finally turned cool for our workday in November as Jill, David, and I worked on covering some unused beds with tarps. Siok Hong harvested chard and okra. We enjoyed watching the Gulf Fritillaries on the zinnias and Monarchs on the milkweed that she has planted in her bed. In December, George was able to harvest some nice broccoli from his bed. With the aid of a 10 ft. ladder, we picked two large boxes of grapefruit from the tree in front of the church. Siok Hong took them to the ICM food bank.

Check out these great photos from the winter work days!

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Our next garden workday will be on the third Saturday, February 18th. We will soon start preparing the spring beds for planting every gardener’s favorite: tomatoes. The race will be on to get them in the ground and producing before the weather gets too hot for them to set.

Several gardeners are also planting herbs, which have the additional benefit of attracting butterflies. Several gardeners welcome volunteers to help with their beds and the donation beds always need tending. Volunteering is a low stress way of learning to garden. Also, the BAUUC Grounds Committee could always use help with mowing and weeding beds on our 14 acre campus. The committee has done a tremendous job with mowing and deserves our thanks.

Blog post & Photos by Nathan V.

 

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Posted in Garden Work Day, News

Community Garden News – Sept 2016

Posted on September 15, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The summer has been hot with lots of rain that did not help us control weeds. The beginning of fall has made our gardeners eager to plant, so we are choosing veggies that will produce in cooler weather such as cabbages, kale and Swiss chard. First, we must spade and till the beds and work in compost to condition the soil. We welcome volunteers! Our next garden work day will be this Saturday, 9/17/2016 from 8:30am – Noon.

This summer, Beatriz and her family grew several nice Sugar Baby watermelons in their garden plot. One of them was sampled by a coyote or other vermin.

watermelons

 

One of our gardeners, Siok Hong, found an interesting vine by the compost area and decided to check it out since it looked so edible. It may be Chinese Broad Leaf or MalabarSpinach  (https://aquafoodsfishgreens.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/do-you-like-spinach-here-is-some-nutritional-goodness-on-the-malabar-spinach/). She is going to stir fry it with garlic and may plant it in her bed. It will do well in our community garden beds with tents to support the vines.

 

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We have added two new gardeners, Siok Hong Chen-Sabot and Jacob Gardner. We also have several volunteers who work with us on workdays and with our water team. This fall, workdays will be on the third Saturday of each month from 8:30 till noon.

If  you are interested in starting a fall garden plot, please contact Nathan for more info at  nveatch@swbell.net

Blog by Nathan

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Garden Potluck – Great Success!

Posted on September 2, 2016 by | Leave a comment

On August 20, eighteen gardeners attended the 1st BAUUC Garden Potluck held in Cockrell Hall.  We had a delicious lunch including fresh salads, soups, casseroles, pasta salad, homemade cookies & cakes. With such a great turnout, we hope to make this an annual event!

Those attending were: George Becker, Ellie Childs, Cindy Lewis, David and Jane Malin, Deandra Newcomb, Ana Payne, John Regner, Siok Hong Chen and David Sabot, Emily Savino & Scott Pensyl, Rosemary S. Clist, Nathan and Jill Veatch. Attending from Challenger 7 Community Garden: Oscar and Sandy Nelson, and Japheth Olivier.

Everyone shared their gardening experiences with each other and helped to build a Bay Area community garden fellowship. We also had the pleasure of winning several door prizes including fresh honey and gardening books.

A huge thank you for those that attended. We look forward to hosting another Bay Area potluck!

Pictures from the event

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Blog post by Nathan & Emily, Photos by Nathan

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Posted in Bragging Rights, News

BAUUC Community Garden News

Posted on August 14, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The Houston Chronicle recently featured four Bay Area community gardens, including ours, in an interesting article. It‘s encouraging to know that we’re not the only ones constantly battling weeds and in need of volunteers! We have invited the three other community gardener groups to a potluck here at BAUUC on Saturday, August 20th from 11:30 – 1 p.m. We look forward to an exchange of ideas and gardening tips. Everyone is welcome to attend, especially if you’re waiting for cooler weather and looking forward to a winter garden.

Our next BAUUC Community Garden Workday will be on Saturday August 13 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. A big thank you to our watering crew: Jane and David Malin and Cindy Lewis and the intrepid gardeners who showed up on the last workday: Jane and David Malin, George Becker, Mike Wehrman Beatriz Perez-Sweeny and her son and Nathan Veatch.

So far this summer, we have donated 24 lbs. onions to ICM, 7 lbs. to BATP and 10 lbs. tomatoes to ICM and 3 lbs. tomatoes to BATP.

Many thanks to Emily Savino for being our webmaster!

Blog post by Nathan V.

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Posted in Garden Work Day, News

Community Garden Potluck – Aug 20, 2016

Posted on June 24, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Join Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church’s Community Gardeners for a potluck! Yep, it’s free!


BAUUC Community Garden members would like to host a potluck in hopes of meeting some of our neighboring Bay Area Community gardeners to exchange ideas, tips, triumphs, etc.

Spring Lettuce


Bring a dish to pass and join us for a great community building opportunity!

  • Date: Saturday, August 20, 2016
  • Where: Bay Area UU Church: 17503 El Camino Real,  Houston, TX 77058
  • When: 11:30am – 1:00pm

For questions, contact us at: info@bauucgarden.org

 

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Upcoming Green Thumb Lectures in Clear Lake Area

Posted on February 4, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone,

Did you know that the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Harris County Master Gardeners host a series of lectures about garden topics right here in the Clear Lake Area? These FREE lectures are held at the Freeman Branch Library every 3rd Thursday of the month. The Freeman Library is located here: 16616 Diana Lane • Houston, TX 77062  (see map)

Here is the upcoming 2016 Schedule:

  • January 21 – Soils and Compost
  • February 18 – Spring Vegetable Gardening
  • March 17 – Raised Beds and Low-Volume Irrigation
  • April 21 – Herbs – Growing and Using
  • May 19 – Plants of the Bible
  • June 16 – Propagation and Seed Saving
  • July 21 – Fall Vegetables
  • August 18 – Container Gardening
  • September 15 – Decorate Your Garden
  • October 20 – Fruit Trees, Planting and Care

Space is limited so registration is recommended. Please Call 281.855.5600.

For additional information about their other events, plant sales and open gardens, please visit the Harris County Master Gardeners website.

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Posted in Gardening Resources, News

A peek at gardens across the pond

Posted on July 21, 2015 by | Leave a comment

One of our Community Gardeners was recently in France and wanted to share some of the beautiful scenery! Here’s Paula’s snapshot of a permanent bouquet along the River Rhone in Lyon, France. Enjoy!

Flowers in France

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Welcome Nathan

Posted on October 24, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Welcome Nathan Veatch as our new garden coordinator.

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Urban Harvest Spring Fling

Posted on April 7, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Our semi-official garden ambassador, Carol Anderson, attended the Urban Harvest 2013 Spring Fling yesterday, and it sounds like she had a lot of fun meeting other community gardeners, spreading the word about our garden, getting some freebies and enjoying really good food.

Carol sent this report:

I went to the UHSF at CMBC and took a few pictures. It was a very fun get-together!

CMBC has a small but lovely garden (since 2009) and provided a garden tour and lunch for the visitors. UH provided a speaker and had a large selection of seeds which they gave away freely, and also had a few plants and clay pots which they also offered to those interested.

One of the CMBC members, Terry, is also in charge of the city community garden program and oversees 11 gardens around town. I also go to meet Bob Randall, the author of “Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston”, AKA “THE” book of gardening in Houston.

Carol

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Thanks to Carol for representing the BAUUC Community Garden.

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