Elizabeth's Secret Garden

  The Winter Park Urban Farm is an urban farming experiment in the heart of Winter Park, FL. The Urban Farm’s mission is “to take a vacant residential lot in Winter Park and convert its fallow land into a productive garden.” Tia Meer is the owner of her own property called the Econ Farm and also one of the main leaders behind this project. She has taken her love of organic farming and sustainability as she works to turn this piece of land into a productive garden. Volunteers are welcome to help sustain this project. Visit the Winter Park Urban Farm website to learn more. http://winterparkharvestfestival.com/ Welcome to the Urban Farm! Various plants are grown on the property. Young seedlings quickly turn into productive vegetables when given care. On the left is Dinosaur Kale and Asian Cucumber is on the right. This netting hanging from wire makes a nice trellis for beans and other climbing plants. It is both useful and portable. My sister and I worked togethe...

Lake Eola is a nice place to visit in downtown Orlando because of its attractive surroundings and natural feel. The park provides recreation for families and is a fun area to experience seeing swans. Lake Eola is known for its swans and even has swan-shaped paddle boats that are available for rent. The park hosts different festivals yearly such as Fiesta in the Park. This year the Spring Fiesta was April 14-15 and there will be another one November 3-4. Below are pictures that I took while we walked the .9 path that makes a circle around the lake. The festival attracts various venders such as artists, crafters, and food vendors. There is so much to choose from since there are up to 200 venders that participate!   Sam Knowles is a chainsaw artist with an eye for transforming logs and tree stumps into works of art. The eagle above is just one of his many creations. You can view his portfolio on his website.  http://samknowleschainsawart.com/Portfolio.html Ancestral...

  Starting a garden through the usage of raised beds can be a lot of fun and have a more organized appearance. The two beds in the picture above were made from siding for houses that you can buy at the hardware store. To fill the boxes, we purchased organic gardening soil and mixed perlite in it. Perlite is a naturally occurring siliceous rock and is used for moisture retention. Too much perlite can make it hard for seeds to sprout. The bed above received more than what was needed, but adding more soil to the top helped to even it out. With the soil in place, my dad began drilling holes for the screws. The screws are used for tying the twine which is a key component to the square foot gardening method. Each square will hold a different plant. Depending on the size of your plant, you can leave empty spaces to accommodate a larger plant. Laying down newspaper along the paths or under the raised beds helps to prevent weeds. We went through all our neighbors recycling bi...