Educational Gardening at Zachary's BBQ

The "before" photo of Zachary's garden.

I made the front page of the Times Herald yesterday. One of my friends commented that usually only politicians make the front page by doing what I was doing. At the time, I was spreading manure. Spreading the real thing is a much more noble past time that politics. Not to mention that I got some much needed sunlight and feasted on barbecue afterwards. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.

If you read my blog on Friday, you saw the notice about the gardening workshop at Zachary's BBQ (1709 Markley Street) last Saturday morning. Being an avid gardener, I went to see what I could learn. I DID learn a lot that I could apply to my own garden, but I also learned a lot about more workshops and the educational gardens planned, courtesy of Feed The Burbs landscaping, and sponsored by Zachary's BBQ.

Now, most of our restaurants in Norristown use fresh foods in their cooking, and some even use fresh local foods. Zachary's will be the first, I think, to be able to pick fresh foods right outside their door. This year's plan is put an herb garden in the space in front of the restaurant. Phase 2 will be to eventually put in an edible perennial garden between the parking lot and sidewalk.

The soil was dug up, then layered with manure, mulch and straw.

As Feed The Burbs installs the herb garden, they'll do a series of hands-on workshops for gardeners. Saturday was the first--a workshop in soil preparation that could apply to any type of garden. They're planning 4 more throughout the year on Garden Design, Planting, Maintenance and Harvesting, and a final harvest and preparation of the garden for winter.

As well as serving some of Zachary's needs, Chef Taylor wants these gardens to be educational--a place you can bring your kids to learn about where food comes from, and how to reduce your carbon footprint by doing some planting in your own yard. (And I highly recommend you go into Zachary's and eat while you're there to taste the results.)

If you want to know about the next workshops, the easiest way, if you're on Facebook, is to LIKE the Feed The Burbs and Zachary's pages and watch for workshop posts and news on garden progress. Otherwise, email info@feedtheburbs.com and they'll send you an email when the next workshop is coming up. Feed The Burbs is also planning to do some workshops at the Norristown Library in 2015, so if you're interested in those, too, let them know or watch the library's calendar on their website.