Revisiting the Pearson Community Garden

This summer I checkout the the Pearson Community Garden. I had heard about it for years, but did not even know where it was.. knew it was on Pearson Drive.. but never found it... well I took a workshop there in August and was pleased and delighted to see what they were up to there!
Meander down Pearson Drive farther than you thought that it could possibly go until you are near the end of it.. and there on your left is the garden. It is like a well kept secret and the end of the road!

Rows and rows of all sorts of goodies. Tomatoes, pumpkins, herbs, greens and more. Interesting trellises and supports for plants, a hoop house, a lean-to greenhouse on the tool shed, and cob structures: a composting toilet and a bread oven.

The Pearson Community Garden is one of the gardens in the Bountiful Cities Project. Bountiful Cities Project is an amazing organization. Here is an excerpt from their website:

Our Mission

To create, on urban land, beautiful community spaces that produce food in abundance and foster a learning environment for social justice and sustainability.

Our Vision

The vision of Bountiful Cities Project is to enliven and empower self-reliance, cooperation, and a stronger sense of community through providing an opportunity
to grow, harvest and eat fresh, local produce. We envision community spaces that serve as models for sustainability through organic food production, water conservation, ecological building, community celebration, and cooperative economics.

This vision is becoming a reality at our two flagship gardens: a permaculture-based vegetable garden on Pearson Drive in Montford and the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park at Stevens Lee Community Center which is home to over 30 varieties of fruit trees and an under story of berries and medicinal herbs.

408 Pearson Drive, Asheville, NC

The Pearson Drive Garden is the Bountiful Cities Project's model garden. It is over an acre of land that produces edibles for the community. We grow a diverse selection of vegetables, including a wide range of greens and peas in the spring, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, and pumpkins in the summer. There is some vegetable production throughout the year, as we grow cold tolerant vegetables under row covers.In addition to the traditional garden vegetables, we grow wild greens, culinary and medicinal herbs, and some perennial vegetables, like the Jerusalem artichoke. Fruits grown at the Pearson Drive Garden include strawberries, raspberries, and apples.

When the Garden was first conceived, the garden beds were arranged in pie-shaped wedges around a central area devoted to medicinal herbs. In 2005, this circular layout was converted to a square layout with linear beds. The linear beds allow for a higher level of food production, and also make it easier for volunteer gardeners to move through the garden.

Community Gardens and organizations like the Bountiful Cities Project  are great ways for would-be gardeners to get started and learn from others in a safe and supportive manner. These gardens also offer gardeners a chance to see ideas at work. I am always inspired to see what other people are doing.
Winter is a great time to be thinking about what you want to do in your home garden, how you might re-organize beds to make them more efficient, what to plant, what seeds to get started, etc. Check out a community garden where you live and support organizations like Bountiful Cities Project, they are there to provide both a model for you and inspiration.

Up-date on Evergreen Cob Project

The building continues and here are some photos to show you how far we have gotten. The cob bench is mostly finished and the strawbale playhouse is coming along.

The playhouse  has an urbanite foundation with a cob layer. Then the bales are stacked and "sculpted" to form window and door openings. There is a stick-built skeletal structure with a deep overhang on the roof to protect the cob and strawbales. The straw will eventually be covered with an earthen plaster.

Close-up of foundation layers.

Cob Bench. I know it looks like a little oven... but it is NOT... Cubby is for the "Observation Journal".

Close-up of Door on Cob Bench. There is a piece of wood with nails embedded in the cob structure that the door is tied into.

The brick patio between the cob bench and the strawbale playhouse.

Side-view of the new playarea. Roof space between the two structures is open as a pergola. It will be fun to see what we eventually plant in the space after the construction is complete!

Next Installment on the Cob Bench Project

It has been a busy few weeks and these photos spent a long time in the camera! But here they are. Back in October, Tony's Cob Building Class at AB Tech did most of the earthen plaster work on our bench. But Tony and I put the final earthen plaster touches on our bench project one sunny afternoon.
The plaster is made of clay, sand and wheat paste. The mixture is smooth and thick and is applied by handfuls and then compressed and smoothed with a piece of plastic cut from a yogurt container. This plastic rib helps to make the edges nice and gives the plaster a smooth surface and a finished look.
The earthen plaster coats the entire bench and gives it a harder, smoother finish than just raw cob.
This bench was designed to have room for lots of kids to sit around it. The backside of the bench overlooks the woods, to one side are the raised garden beds and to the other side are bird feeders and a storm water garden.
The bench has a beehive theme complete with giant sculpted bees on the top surface. It is to be an observation station for wildlife watching at the school. The bench has a built-in place to store a notebook which will be used as a journal to record bird activity.
I love this detail of where the foundation meets the cob.
The opening now has a wooden door fitted for it, hinged to a piece of wood that was built into the cob structure. I'll need to get pictures of it to share.
Sammy the snake guards the opening. Not sure yet what we are doing to finish the snake.. right now, we left it in raw cob. I think Tony was talking about oiling it to preserve it and allow it to have a different look from the smooth plaster finish of the rest of the bench.

The whole project still has a way to go.. The AB Tech class continues the work on the strawbale playhouse that is located opposite of the bench. In this photo you can see the brick courtyard that has been started between the two structures.
More pictures to come. What a great way this has been for me to learn about cob building and help out and my daughter's school. I look forward to the day when I am ready to build something out of cob in my own backyard!

Cob Bench takes shape

Our Cob Bench project at Evergreen Community Charter is taking form! Rains over the last week or 2 seriously interrupted our progress but little by little is it getting there. This week I worked with Tony on some final shaping. The above picture is the before work started on Thursday picture.
Here a detail of the foundation made of brick and urbanite with the cob seating area and the central "back rest".
Another shot of the bench before we began our final shaping work. Sculpting. The idea is that the bench will be in the shape of a bee hive.. albeit a bit flattened to facilitate it's function as a back rest and to fit a maximum number of sitting kids. Built into the central core is an arched space with a wooden door to hold the garden journal that the kids will, as a community, keep notes on the garden (what's blooming, which birds, bees, animals, etc they see.. and other observations. There is a bird feeder nearby and the raised bed garden too. Pretty cool!
The sculpting consisted of adding and subtracting cob and rubbing and shaping with water. Slowly but surely it took shape as we worked.
The opening is guarded by Sammy the Snake, formed of cob, who is the keeper of the garden journal. After the plastering is done, some elements of the bench will be painted. Sammy will be more defined when he gets a paint job!

Next step is the process of plastering the cob structure. It will be an Earthen Plaster and will put a finishing coat over the entire bench. Stay tuned!

Ritual Mud Face Painting

Once the cobbing had begun in earnest with Rebecca's Third Grade Class, Tony got out a bucket of clay... Wouldn't you know it, Rebecca was the first in line to get her face painted!
They both look pretty pleased with the painting, I'd say!
It wasn't long before the kids were lining up to be next! They seemed both surprised and delighted that an adult was painting on their faces with mud!
Most of the children left their "cob paint" on for the rest of the day.. A badge of honor of sorts!


There is something magical about about working with the primordial materials of clay, sand and water.. The magic certainly was not lost on these kids as they took their turn to work together to MAKE a special place at their school to share with the whole community. I find myself wondering what impact will this project have on their choices.. what ripples this experience will stir in their lives further down the road...
And then I find myself with the lyrics of a song spinning in my head and heart.. while we are not working with clay as potters (a role I have had in my life...with my BFA in Ceramic Arts) we are working with this magical stuff, this creative force...
The words of the "Potters Wheel" always bring on a huge response from my heart. I was first introduced to this powerful song at a concert by my friend Freyda Epstein. She sang this song on one of her albums... she is gone now.. but her voice, singing this song haunts me still.. it is how I remember her!

Potter's Wheel

Words and Music by Bill Danoff

The world is fast becoming younger;
The news is all they've ever known.
They've seen the wars, the hurt, the hunger.
How will they choose when they are grown?

What do you tell forever's children
When it's their turn to hurt and heal?
Whatever spins a grim tornado
Can also turn a potters wheel.

Take a little clay, Put it on a wheel
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, Listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Tell with your life the bloody story,
Teach to their dreams, not burning steel.
It's not in bombs where lies the glory,
But in what's shattered on the field.

The potters wheel takes love and caring,
Skill and patience fast and slow.
The works it makes are easily broken,
Once they survive the potters throw.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel;
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to it spin;
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Some day some children will be digging
In some long forgotten ground.
And they'll find our civilization
Or what's left of it to be found.

They'll find the weapons of destruction.
But buried deeper in the hole,
They'll find a message and a promise,
In the sand, the potters bowl.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Earth and fire and wind conspire,
With human hands, and love, and fire.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

The children we are growing in our Evergreen Community are amazing beings, they give me hope for our future!

Evergreen Cob - Day 2

Day two of our Mud Fest was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot.. real nice. We started off the morning with a Third Grade class... my daughter Rebecca's class. They got an introduction from Tony, removed their shoes, rolled up long pants to the knees and were grouped into teams and sent off to a tarp to await further instruction.
Sand and clay were dumped on each tarp and the kids got to work. I had the pleasure of working with a group of girls that included Rebecca... they were SO funny.. all squeamish and giggly and shrieky! But after getting their feet used to the new sensations.. they joined hands and made up a mud dance.. circling left and right while jumping up and down.. I wish I had had my camera handy to capture that moment! We also worked with the two 5th Grade classes that day.

The older kids got to get in the tub of clay and mix it up with water and feet..
No hesitation here! Lots of squeals though! When the sand and clay were mixed it was time to add straw.. "sprinkle the cheese on the pizza"..Says Tony... now make it all dirty! The Cob is flipped in tarp several times to bring the bottom up to the top and facilitate a more through mix.
Now that our cob is mixed and ready, Tony demonstrates how to form a cob ball to carry to the bench.
Everyone joins in the fun of adding cob to the bench structure.. Still hard to tell how it will really look when it is all finished.. I keep telling the kids it is a "work in progress"!


At the end of Day 2... after 5 classes have added their touch... here is what the bench looks like.

Hummm... wonder how it will be in the end! Stay tuned...