Ladonia, Texas - On Friday, April 8, 2011 Ladonia residents celebrated the grand opening of their "Ladonia Community Gardens."
Dr. Charles Webber of the USDA Research Center in Lane, Oklahoma kicked off the day with an entertaining and educational presentation of organic weed control.
Dr. Webber donated some gorgeous live pineapple plants for door prizes and then presented the Ladonia Community Gardens with a donation of nearly 1000 seedlings of various tomatoes and peppers as well as several huge onion plants.
Randy Moore from USDA brought door prizes as did Linda Parker from Texas Department of Agriculture and Roger Skipper of Agrilife.
There were a total of 15 door prize winners, most of whom had volunteered much labor or sponsored the gardens with donations of tangible goods.
Fannindel High School Ag Department, led by Casey Rogers, came to the Ladonia Community Gardens to volunteer their time and labor to get the seedlings planted. They are involved with the LCGardens as a class project.
Dlora Metzke of Pecan Gap, Texas who is the manager of Atwood’s in Sulphur Springs, donated bushels of seed potatoes, onions and several very nice door prizes for attendees.
There was representation from the Fannin County Agrilife Extension Service including several Master Gardeners from Fannin County, including the tireless ‘work horse’ Russell Green!
The guidance and education from the Master Gardeners was invaluable with their directions for planting and marking of the rows and all their hard work!! They were awesome!
Staying late to finish planting were: Sam Morris with Green Market Industries in Austin, Bob Bledsoe, Charles Doyle, Dr. Webber, and Amanda Adams.
"We had a blast playing in the dirt and socializing with other gardeners!" remarked Amanda.