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HELLO FLOWER FRIENDS! Wow! We had a fantastic time at the Annual CVG Planting Party on March 8, 2025 planting this year's garden! This Thursday is the first day of Spring so we have a head start for a fantastic growing season full of flowers and veggies! We had a really fun time and got everything in the garden planted! Everyone including the kiddos worked really hard! Bravo!!! The turn out was wonderful with over 40 people planting like busy beavers! It was super fun and planting a flower for a cancer patient is super rewarding!!! Thank you very much for showing up for a cause! You are awesome supporters! We had lots of Survivors, Supporters, and Special gardening types even! Oh and kids planting!   Ken Ward, my husband extraordinaire, brought in two yards of soil bucket by bucket to refill the dahlia tanks this spring. We added my secret soil recipe OK! (I will share it with you! Just keep it a secret, OK. I add a whole bag of worm castings from Home Depot, a bag of chicken manure or organic if you have chickens, organic bone meal also from HD, Azomite which are trace minerals helping the plants to grow strong, flower fertilizer 4-4-4 - this is critical. Don’t get too high of Nitrogen or you will have all plants and few flowers. Dahlias love fertilizer when planted, and again a month later.)   I love Sluggo Plus, which has stuff to deter Earwigs, they love dahlias! The only challenge is don’t use it when it rains as I have found it turns into moldy lump! Uck! You can use organic products because they feed the soil which in turn feeds the plant. I don’t use Miracle Grow because it only feeds the plant and can actually starve the plant of valuable elements. We grow our flowers in galvanized steel tanks that have a hole in the bottom to allow for a drip water system. It keeps the gophers out from the field from across the street! LOL! Look at Sandy, Kathy, and Dana planting up the veggie garden with added sunflowers seeds, way to go ladies! We use double level cattle fencing to act as support for the dahlias which grow 5-6 feet!  The garden was planted with a TON of different seeds thanks to our gardeners and donors! I ordered many seeds to take us through the season. We also collect seeds to replant! Sunflowers, Dahlias, Snapdragons, Anemone, Ranunculus, Coneflowers in three colors!, Asters, and more! We planted seeds, dahlia tubers, and seedlings! WOWZA! We even had a successful Dahlia Tuber Sale!Along with planting instructions! I love this picture of Dana explaining to Nancy and Francine that each tuber must have an eye, like a potato to sprout a plant!     This is my fellow survivor Annie! She is one of our dedicated volunteer flower arrangers. She comes every week and creates beautiful arrangements! She also is a very talented author and wrote a book of prayer to support cancer patients going through treatment.
Anyhow, now we wait! Oh, waiting is hard! But I know under the warm ground the seeds are growing roots and the dahlias are starting to sprout. Resist giving your dahlias water until they sprout or they will rot. Make certain your seeds are moist so they can sprout. I sprinkle the seeds daily until they get a good start. I love it when I see their little heads poking up through the dirt so intentionally stating their purpose to grow tall and strong. You are welcome to stop by for a visit any Monday to check out the garden, share a coffee, or just sit and relax! Or you can join us in creating beautiful arrangements Mondays during growing season 9-11am. Please text ahead to check availability, 805.440.3064 I look forward to seeing you tip-toeing through the flowers soon! Love, Linda & the CVG Team!
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Hello Flower Friends, SAVE THE DATES:
 Each morning this January, I've watched the same scene unfold out my office window: frost coating the ground at dawn, thermometer reading steady at 36 degrees. But by mid-morning, the sun breaks through, warming the earth to above 70 degrees and giving us a few precious hours to work. This rhythmic dance is a bit confusing for the plants between almost freezing and warming has shaped our workdays in unexpected ways. We have been digging up all the Dahlia tubers and splitting them. We will be having a Tuber Sale at our March 8, Saturday, 2025, Planting Party. Right now I am waiting for it to warm up enough to go outside and divide tubers then place them in plastic containers with vermiculite until the PlantingParty. It seems ages ago that we had our Annual Evening in the Cancer Victory Garden.  Our 2024 Signature Event: An Argentine Evening in the Garden brought out over 60 donors to the CVG. We are so grateful that you deem our project worthy to support. This year we gave over 524 vases of flowers to cancer patients through Dignity Infusion, Hearst Cancer Resource Center, UCLA, and Grace Bible Church. Who knew that a tiny plot of land could yield so much! Thank you for your donations which purchased superior fertilizer to create big and profuse Dahlias and more! We added large containers for even more Dahlias. Which in turn means more water but then you supported this as well. Our team of floral arrangers, supporters and gardeners are wonderful. We are in the garden each Monday during the growing season May - September.    For now MARK YOUR CALENDAR for March 8, Saturday, 9-12 and we will plant a TON of Dahlias and seeds. Everyone is welcome to dig in the dirt: Survivors, Supporters, Patients, and even your grandchildren! With your donation of $20 lunch is included! Yum! More to come!  If you feel like dividing Dahlias, come on by!!
Happy gardening! Love, Linda Each Monday for the entire growing season we have people who volunteer to make flower arrangements from flowers grown at the Cancer Victory Garden. These arrangements are then transported to patients via: Hearst Cancer resource Center, Dignity Infusion Center, UCLA Oncology, and Grace Bible Church Arroyo Grande. Here are a few fotos taken in the garden this week! This first beauty was planted by our very own Dr. Deborah VIlla during our Planting Day Event! She was a real trooper and planted in the pouring rain that day!  The really FUN part is first cutting the dahlias! This past year due to your generous donations we were able to purchase Dahlia tubers from several growers. I especially like Swan Island Farms in Washington state and Triple Wren Farms. Their selection is fantastic and their blooms are guaranteed!  Check out these beauties!! We have a lot of FUN cutting and posing for fotos too!  It's hard to spot the real beauties in this fotos right! After we cut enough flowers to make 25 arrangements per week we prepare the vases with cards of encouragement and bows along with floral preserver in the water. The floral designer here, Judith Gier, has all the bows tied and we are off and running!  After cutting the team gets to work designing and arranging! Each week we talk about which flowers are blooming and how they might work in arrangements.  After we have all our weekly arrangements complete we load them into crates for delivery. Gotta run and make our deliveries now! Have a great week!
Linda Ward, Judith Gier, Judy Sheets, Ken Ward, Dana Wright, & Heather Howell. You TOO are welcome to join us any Monday 9:00am-11:00am in the CVG! Just text me 805.440.3064 |
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