[PHOTOSTORY 4: WORK SHIFT] A Day In The Garden With KSBB

 By: Daisy Davis

The City of Statesboro Community Garden sign on Parker Street in Statesboro. The Community Garden is maintained by Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful (KSBB), a governmental non-profit organization in Bulloch County.

Timeka Shannon reaches for a pair of gloves. Timeka Shannon is the coordinator for KSBB who organizes  Garden Together Day every Friday.

Timeka Shannon grabs gardening gloves to hand to volunteers. Hillary Nguyen, a senior at Bulloch Academy, puts her gloves on for volunteer work to add to her BETA club community service hours.

Patricia Larose Wallflower walks with her daughter, Ava Wallflower, and other volunteers to get a rake to use in the flower garden. The garden has over 20 volunteers this Friday.

The raised flower bed section of the Statesboro Community Garden. Ground plots and raised bed plots are sold to residents who are willing to come to the garden and maintain them.

Ava Wallflower and Hendrix Delaney sit against the raised garden beds, awaiting further instructions. The girls are learning how to weed raised beds and plant flowers.

Timeka Shannon (left) instructs Ava Wallflower (right) and Hendrix Delaney (center) on how to pull weeds properly from the soil. "It's exciting to teach kids how to plant and see that they are eager to learn everything you are telling and showing them," Timeka Shannon said.

Ava Wallflower (left) and Hendrix Delaney (right) pick weeds from the raised bed to put in their buckets. The girls are learning the steps of planting in the flower beds before they move on to the larger ground plots.

Jennifer Drey (left) has problems with fire ants while weeding a raised bed with Kirsten Barrett (center) and Kathryn Stewart (right). The women are doing their quarterly service work for the Institute for Health Logistics and Analytics at Georgia Southern.

Kristen Barrett (left) and Kathryn Stewart (left) look towards their friend as fire ants from the garden disrupt their work. "I didn't believe that there were fire ants over here until I felt the sting on my ankle too," Barrett said.

Potted flowers sit beside the raised bed garden. These flowers are potted for eventual planting by volunteers in the raised bed garden.

Alana Jackson pulls weeds from a raised bed before new flowers can be planted. Alana Jackson is a Serve 912 leader doing community service work for the organization.

Bags of Black Kow Manure and a rake sit beside a freshly tilled plot. "We're picky, this is the brand of manure we buy and we stay away from any fertilizer that uses peat moss," Timeka Shannon said.

Aaron Jump burns a field of weeds before it can be tilled and planted. Aaron Jump is a KSBB Board Member and avid gardener who enjoys giving Community Garden demonstrations. 

Volunteers spread out to perform different tasks in the garden. Most of the volunteers represent five university organizations, while contribute independently.

Julie Jung, a senior at Bulloch Academy, tills a row of soil. Julie Jung said she enjoys volunteering in the garden because of the hands-on aspect of the work.

A power tiller plows through the garden, making room for new vegetables to be planted. The power tiller works fast so that new plants can be grown in the garden.

Charity Lynn (left) and Aaron Jump (right) make a plan for planting in the freshly tilled field. The garden board members are often here to assist volunteers and get the plots ready for new plants.

Timeka Shannon digs in the dirt to pull old roots. The fertilizer in the garden is carefully selected for the type of plant, in this case, the plot is being prepared for vegetables.

 Volunteers stand in front of a plot with buckets of pulled weeds. The Statesboro Community Garden is open for volunteers every Friday from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.