The Health Department is located at 1005 W. Worley St.

Thursday, May 17
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Columbia/Boone County Health Department, Community Room,
1005 W. Worley St., Columbia

To sign up, use this form or email the instructor, Vera Massey, from University Extension.

We’ll have tomatoes, peppers, a few eggplants starts and sweet potato slips.

We are requesting a donation of 25-50¢ per plant to offset our costs of buying and transporting them. We ask that you give what you can, but you will not be refused for lack of funds. We hope many gardeners can take advantage of this opportunity.

Please note: we can only offer this service to those gardening in our member gardens, not the public at large.

We are requesting a donation of at least 25-50¢ per plant to offset our costs of buying and transporting them. We ask that you give what you can, but you will not be refused for lack of funds. These are good quality plants and the weather is fantastic right now for growing brassicas, so we hope many gardeners can take advantage of this opportunity.

Please note: we can only offer this service to those gardening in our member gardens, not the public at large.

If you’re interested, contact Linda by email and put “garden” in the subject line. If you live nearby and are a beginner, this would be a good way to learn about gardening without the full responsibility of having your own garden.

Here’s a little peek at a few of the faces of community gardening in CoMo.

Leanna & Ryan Dabler have gardened before, but only in the lovely weather of California, so Missouri gardening could pose new challenges. They have herbs ready to transplant into their garden plot at Circus-Lyons and they’re also looking forward to growing beans, tomatoes, marigolds, cucumbers and a small variety of pumpkin, which Ryan is excited to cook into a delicious soup.

Todd Houts is eager to try his hand at gardening at Broadway Christian Church. He’s a beginner, but he’s recruited a friend with a little more experience to help him along and he’s going to grow some lettuces, spinach, tomatoes and peppers, both hot and sweet.

Julio Lorio & Ana Maria Fernandez have gardened at Ash St. garden for a couple of years and are going to be garden leaders there this year. They’re planning to grow tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro, Chinese long beans, bell peppers and mustard greens. Ana’s also planning to try growing okra for the first time after a fellow gardener gave us both some tips on how to cook it (fried) and how to grow it (it gets tall enough that rabbits & groundhogs can’t eat your okra!). Julio had some great gardening advice. He says to be sure you always plant something that you don’t care too much about, just “plant it, water it, then forget about it.” That plant you ignore will be the thing that grows and grows and grows.

Hopefully we’ll get to check back in with Todd, Leanna, Ryan, Ana Maria and Julio later this season to see how their gardens grew. Do you have updates, photos, recipes or anecdotes from your community gardening experience? Send them to us for posting.

Both the garden at the Health Department and the Ash St. garden also have some plots still available.

In the north central part of Columbia, Benton-Stephens, Ninth St. and St. Joseph gardens are all full. A waiting list is established at Benton and will soon be started at the other two.

The leaders of St. Joseph garden are looking for some small groups of gardeners to work a new garden nearby on St. James Street. Contact Adam to talk about this opportunity.