 Bartlett Park Community Garden is a unique garden. It's self-sufficient. We have our own well, we have our own solar power. I think we're the only garden in the city that actually has solar power and we are very proud of that and it's just in a beautiful location in the middle of St. Petersburg, Florida. Our mission is to keep this garden alive, keep it flourishing and provide for the community. We provide the community with fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs and herbs. The community garden was founded in 2008. A few people purchased the land and started clearing it and developing it and it's been flourishing ever since. People are still interested. Things are happening good for the garden. Thank goodness for them putting this here and I really think this was the first garden in this community. I think it's a landmark here. When I came in about over 10 years ago, I was riding by on Nice Street South and I looked over and I saw the greenery and I'm like, wow, there's a garden and I stopped in and I've been here ever since. When I moved to this city about 24 years ago, I had a small garden in my yard but when I saw the opportunity that I could come out here and garden that really opened up. My passion just said, let's do it and I'm doing it and I'm going to continue doing it. I'm out here almost every day. Even on Sundays, I come by for a little while checking. I want it to flourish. I want it to grow. I want people all in the community to come in and enjoy this garden. We want people here all the time. Anytime they want to come in, we want them here. It feels like you're in the country actually when you step into this garden. It takes you back and being with nature. It just really feels good out here. This garden means a lot to me. My heart is in Bart de Park Community Garden. This quarter acre space, we have a full forest growing around the garden on the outside. We want our neighbors to come by and pick the fruit, the vegetables, the herbs, whatever is ready to harvest out there. We want them to have it. Our mango tree is flourishing. It's only been here about five years and it's filled with mangoes. Today I think Ms. Hayes came out and she picked up about 25 mangoes from out of there and they are delicious. Out front we have a community table where we put fruits and vegetables and clothing and all kinds of housewares out there. We also have a seed library right there where people can come by and get their seeds and they can also share seeds with us. We also have a book library out there. Everybody's welcome to the books. In the space inside we've not only have in-ground but we have beds. We have different beds in here. We grow peppers and tomatoes and onions and sweet potatoes and greens, all kinds of greens, turnips, mustard, collards, kale, cabbages and arugula. It grows wild here. And another thing that we have is some beautiful sunflowers that grow in here. We have sunflowers that grow here every year for the past five years. The seeds have spread, they grow all over the garden. The wild parrots come in and droves and come and eat their seeds every morning, about seven-thirty in the morning. They are here. They are so beautiful along with the sunflowers. Another aspect of the garden that we have is a nursery. We have a small nursery here that we bring plants and people donate plants and we grow our own from seeds. When we have events here that's one of the things also that we like to give them a plant, give them something to take back home. We also have our chickens back there which we have thirty-nine chickens. Yes, I did say thirty-nine chickens and we love those chickens. Those chickens provide eggs for us and actually it's a comfort to have chickens in the garden. People love to come in and see them and you know watch them and hold them. The community they love having this garden here and very appreciative of it. We just want everybody in here and especially the children and I want them to be educated about gardening and know how to plant and know where their food comes from. Not off the shelves of a store. I want them to see that it's planted in the ground and you have to care for it. You have to harvest it. You have to maintain it. It just don't just grow. You know you gotta take care of it. My mom is eighty-five years old and she loves this garden. She'll come out here and sit. She'll sit down with Miss Hayes and some of the other volunteers they'll just sit in the garden. They talk. They get their vegetables. Go back home and cook and they'll come back again and talk about what they cooked and how it tasted. They said vegetables from this garden is so good. They can't describe it. It's not like what you buy at the store. What you're putting into your body is healthy foods from Bartlett Park Community Garden. Everything's healthy. You don't have to worry about you know not eating the healthy food because that is basically what Bartlett Park is about eating healthy. One of my sisters is she always teases me about being on the farm because it's my passion. It's what I love to do and she knows it. She wants to find me a lot of times. She knows she just comes by the garden because she knows I'm here. But this is what I love doing and I want to do.