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Pensacola community garden pushes to ‘bloom where you’re planted’ after hurricanes, COVID-19

See video of kids learning in garden.

“I think the best line that I can come up with, and it’s very cliché and very roll your eyes, but it’s bloom where you’re planted.”

By Madison Arnold
Pensacola News Journal
Mar 16

Excerpt:

The community garden was already having a difficult year after losing funding because of the coronavirus pandemic when hurricanes Sally and Zeta damaged many of the existing trellises and killed many plants. Now, lead gardener Elizabeth Eubanks and volunteers are working to help the garden recover despite its limited resources, all the while harvesting winter crops and planting summer ones to help feed others.

“With the two hurricanes, we lost plants. We lost trellising. And so we’re still in great need. It looks a little bit more rundown than I would have it,” Eubanks said. “We still need to get all of that done because it’s tomato season now and I need to get these things up, and there’s just limits of time due to budget and salary and supplies.”

Elizabeth Eubanks, lead gardener at From The Ground Up Community Garden, talks March 9 about surviving through the difficulties of Hurricane Sally and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The community garden at 501 N. Hayne St. is mostly funded by Innisfree Hotels as part of its corporate responsibility program. It provides education for students, community events and fresh organic produce to its volunteers or any community members who need it.

During the initial days of the pandemic, which put a halt to travel, Innisfree had to cut funding to the garden.

Read the complete article here.