Author Archives: Jenny

Community Gardening Gets Started for 2024

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With Saturday’s meeting of garden leaders, the spring season is truly underway at community gardens. Here are a few things to know!

If you were a community gardener at one of our member gardens last year, please take a minute to confirm with your garden leader whether you will garden again this year. We have heard from many new gardeners seeking plots and some gardens are already full!

If you are planning a garden this year:

  • Talk to your garden leader if you want seeds, row cover or hoops — all three are available through the CGC. (You make a donation here to offset our costs if you’re able.) This year, the CGC will not distribute garden plants.
  • Water is on already at some gardens, but not all yet. Please ask your GL for information.
  • Please have someone in your household fill out the Annual Household Info form.

If you’re a garden leader or helping out at your garden, please see our Resources for Garden Leaders page for information shared at our meeting today, the annual reporting form for group/youth gardens, and more.

Get More Involved This Year — Volunteer!

Please remember that all garden leaders and CGC board members are volunteers! We appreciate everyone’s effort to keep the gardens running! If you have time to volunteer a little more at your garden, contact your garden leader; there are usually lots of tasks to go around.

Or, maybe you’d be interested in helping out on our board! We have some veteran members stepping down; and we could use some fresh faces to help us continue this work. Please contact us for more information!

What does your community garden mean to you? "I feel part of a great community of gardeners. I learn from them, enjoy their company."

Giving Thanks for Another Gardening Season

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A tall sunflower plant blooms against the sky; a garden and neighboring house are visible around and behind it.As we mark the end of another gardening season, many of us are pausing to give thanks and celebrate seasonal bounty.

As a community gardener, I am grateful for the continued generosity of the landowner of my garden, my garden leader who shares so much of her time to keep the garden running, and my fellow gardeners who help keep it maintained through the season. And I’m grateful that the Community Garden Coalition organization has backed my garden with supplies, insurance, water, compost, straw and other support.

CGC board members pose together during an event at a community gardenAs a longtime CGC board member, I want to express my thanks more broadly to my fellow board members and all the community garden leaders and gardeners out there working to keep these community spaces vibrant and productive. And, of course, I’m thankful to all our supporters out there who have donated money, time or other resources!

This was our 40th year as an organization! We thank you for being a part of that, and we hope you’re planning for a great garden next year.

Garlic Growing Workshop August 28

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two heads of garlic sit on a wood surface

Don’t forget about the free Garlic Growing Workshop planned for Monday, August 28! Veteran community garden garlic grower and MU Extension specialist Dhruba Dhakal will have lots of tips for planting, harvest and storage. As you think about your fall garden and the end of the season, planting some garlic makes great use of a portion of your garden plot over the winter!

Garlic Production Workshop
Monday, August 28
6 p.m.
Columbia Public Library, Friends Room
100 W. Broadway, Columbia, MO 65201

Register Here!

This workshop is part of our celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Community Garden Coalition. Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Garlic in Your Garden

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a double row of soft-neck garlic is shown in straw mulch with tall green leaves, the lower ones just starting to brown

Have you tried growing garlic in your garden yet? It’s an easy, fall-planted crop that usually has great success in our area. The Community Garden Coalition is sponsoring a free workshop with an expert in garlic growing. Dhruba Dhakal is an MU Extension specialist AND a longtime community gardener who has grown many, many a head of garlic in his plot at Ash St. garden.

Mark your calendar for August 28 and join us for this free workshop for community gardeners or anyone who’d like to learn!

Garlic Production Workshop
Monday, August 28
6 p.m.
Columbia Public Library, Friends Room
100 W. Broadway, Columbia, MO 65201

Register Here!

If you can’t make it to the workshop, check out this how-to post from a former CGC board member: Gearing Up for Garlic. This workshop is part of our celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Community Garden Coalition. Thank you for your continued interest and support!

garlic-production-workshop-flyer-2

Upcoming Classes for Gardeners

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As of our mission to help community gardeners, this year we’ve been focusing on educational opportunities. We’ve offered several workshops with other partners as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations. We also want to let you know about the following free or low-cost classes offered by University Extension presenters to help you deal with drought in your garden, learn how to store your harvest and improve your compost pile.

Check out the following offerings and follow the links to register. Another composting workshop is being planned in early August at our Unite4Health garden, so stay tuned for more information!

Workshop on Drought Management in Garden Plants

Wednesday, July 12, 6-8 p.m.
1012 N. Highway UU, Columbia, MO 65203
Cost: FREE
Register at this link.

In this workshop, horticulture producers and gardeners will learn about the effect of drought and heat on garden plants. They will also learn about how to minimize the drought effect in the garden plants in the workshop.

Home Food Preservation – Harvesting and Storing Fresh Produce

Friday, July 21, 12-1:30 p.m.
2nd floor, 105 E Ash Street, Columbia, MO 65203
OR Live via Zoom
Cost: $20
Register at this link.
(Registration closes Tuesday, July 18 at 11 p.m.)

This course will look at current standards for harvesting and storing fresh produce as well as hands-on preparation of a seasonal recipe. Participants may either attend in-person or online via Zoom. Participants who attend online must be able to pick-up a grocery bag of food to be prepared from the MU Family Impact Center in Columbia, MO.

Composting Workshop

Monday, July 24, 6-8 p.m.
1012 N. Highway UU, Columbia, MO 65203
Cost: FREE
Register at this link.

Participants will learn about benefits of compost in the soil, source of composting materials, good materials, and materials to avoid during composting. The speaker will talk about the greens and browns materials used during composting. Participants will learn about methods of composting, site selection for compost pile and compost testing in this program.

Garden Pests and Pollinators Workshop

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We’re so excited to be co-sponsoring a gardener education workshop this month with the Columbia Public Library! Clear your calendar for Saturday, June 24 and see the details below. No need to register and all gardeners and community members are welcome, teens and adults!

Garden Pests and Pollinators:
How to Manage for Both in Your Home and Community Garden

Saturday, June 24 at 2-3:30 p.m.
Columbia Public Library, Friends Room, 100 W. Broadway

Mid-Missouri gardeners are bedeviled by all kinds of pests, from tomato hornworms to Japanese beetles, throughout the growing season. The ongoing challenge is to fight back against these pests, while encouraging the presence of the bees, butterflies and moths who pollinate your plants! Joe Walls from the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture and Dana Morris from Central Methodist University will share their know-how at this presentation. Joe will share natural pest management tips for home and community gardeners. Dana, who has worked extensively with monarch butterfly recovery, will present on “Thinking Like a Bee: Planting and Planning for Habitat.”

Joe Walls received his master’s degree in entomology as well in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State University. During graduate school, he studied integrated pest and disease management for plant viruses and their insect vectors, with special focus on climate change. Since finishing his graduate studies he has worked at Happy Hollow Farm and currently works at Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. He specializes in pest and disease management plans as well as farm systems maintenance and construction. 

Dana Morris earned her B.S and M.S. in fisheries and wildlife sciences and a Ph.D. in biology from MU studying avian ecology. She worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Department of Natural Resources in water quality and outreach education. She taught for 4 years in the School of Natural Resources at Mizzou, worked as a post-doc studying savannah ecology in Kenya and as a post-doc for the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project before joining the faculty at Central Methodist University in Fayette, MO in 2012. Since 2014, she has been restoring an 86-acre university-owned nature sanctuary with native habitat to better support biodiversity, pollinators and an outdoor classroom. In her own garden, she grows just enough produce for her family and several families of wild animal neighbors.

This workshop is part of our series of gardener education workshops celebrating our 40th anniversary.

Learn About Caring for Your Garden Soil

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The next event in our 40th anniversary workshop series is brought to us by MU Extension and taking place at the Columbia Public Library.

A person's hand is held just above some garden soil and holding some soil. Green leaves are just behind the hand.

Soil and Nutrient Management in the Garden
Monday, May 1 at 6 p.m.
Columbia Public Library, 100 W. Broadway
Please register with MU Extension

This program provides education to the local gardeners about soil and nutrient management in their gardens. The speaker will talk about function and composition of soil, and soil organic matter. The standard procedure for soil sampling will be discussed in the meeting. There will be discussion about essential plant nutrients, soil test report interpretation and fertilizer application.

Interested participants need to register online or call to Boone County Extension Center at (573) 445-9792.

Small Space Gardening Workshop

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This Saturday’s workshop at Friendship Community Garden will go ahead despite the weather! We hope you’ll bundle up against the chill and join us to learn about square-foot gardening and rain barrels!

A man leans down into a small garden bed with leafy greens, his hand touching some lettuce leaves

Saturday, April 22 at 12 p.m.
Friendship Community Garden
1707 Smiley Lane

Learn about square-foot gardening and DIY rain barrels at this demonstration event. Square-foot gardening is a popular method of growing an intensive vegetable garden in less space. It is also very water and resource-efficient. Visit a working square-foot garden and discuss how to fit in all your favorite veggies. Gary Carter of Friendship garden will also discuss how he sourced and installed the DIY rain barrels that help gardeners water there.

Participants will get a free space-saving heirloom tomato seedling!

This event is part of our celebrations of our 40th Anniversary! More events will be announced soon!

Workshops Update

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It’s the 40th year for the Community Garden Coalition, and to celebrate we’re organizing some public workshops on various gardening topics all season long! Please note that as our plans have come into focus, our small space gardening workshop events have changed from their original dates. There will no longer be a workshop on April 8 or May 13 as was originally planned.

Instead, please join us to learn about small space gardening and DIY rain barrels on the following date:

Gardeners look over a small garden plot while holding a watering can

Small Space Gardening Workshop

Saturday, April 22 at 12 p.m.
Friendship Community Garden
1707 Smiley Lane

Learn about square-foot gardening and DIY rain barrels at this demonstration event.

Square-foot gardening is a popular method of growing an intensive vegetable garden in less space. It is also very water and resource-efficient. Visit a working square-foot garden and discuss how to fit in all your favorite veggies. Gary Carter of Friendship garden will also discuss how he sourced and installed the DIY rain barrels that help gardeners water there.

Participants will get a free space-saving heirloom tomato seedling!

Our earlier spring workshops focused on learning how to prune the fruit trees and elderberry bushes that make a nice addition on the margins of some of our community gardens. Thanks to our board member Mallary Lieber for leading those events!

Mallary and Cheryl stand with pruning tools at the Unite4Health garden
three people stand next to a ladder beneath a tree debating a pruning cut.
participants in an elderberry pruning workshop pose for a photo in the Kilgore's garden, bundled up against cold weather
workshop leader Mallary, dressed in a winter coat and hat, holds hand pruners to the bare branch of an elderberry shrub and smiles for the camera

We hope you’re able to get your garden ready and growing soon!

Low raised beds, some freshly built, are filled with fresh soil and compost next to a fence at Ridgeway school, while a mom and child stand to one side. Text on the photo reads "Ready for planting!"
several gardeners and leaders pose for the camera while holding packets of seeds, standing in the early spring garden at Ash St.
several people gather in the early spring at Friendship garden, dressed for cool weather

Elderberry Pruning Workshop Postponed for Rain

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Update 4/2: Please note, our small space gardening workshops have been reformulated and will no longer take place on April 8 & May 13. Watch for more details about an April workshop soon!

Our series of workshops for our gardeners and other interested community members continues, but tomorrow’s event will be postponed! Here’s more information on that and our next event.

Elderberry Pruning Workshop
NEW DATE: Saturday, March 18, 2:30 p.m.
Kilgore’s Community Garden, 700 N. Providence Rd.
Because of the forecast for rain on Saturday, March 11, we’re moving to our rain date of March 18. Still free and open to all! Participants will learn how to prune elderberries, a wonderful native fruiting plant, and go home with a cutting along with instructions about how and where to plant. Led by Mallary Lieber of the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture and the Community Garden Coalition.

Small Space Gardening Workshops
Saturdays April 8 & May 13, 2:30 p.m.
Friendship Community Garden, 1707 Smiley Lane
Get tips and tricks on fitting all your favorite vegetables into a 4×4′ garden. Visit a working square-foot garden, practice planting with a square-foot grid, and strategize succession planting for the best harvest. Participants will receive Tom Thumb lettuce seeds at the April workshop and an heirloom tomato space-saving seedling at the May workshop.