Join the Community Garden Coalition for children’s activities, light refreshments, and tours of the Unite4Health garden. If you’ve ever been interested in gardening at one of Columbia’s community gardens, starting a garden of your own, or simply curious about the role community gardens play in community resilience and food security, please stop by and visit!
Sunday, October 18th
1-3PM
Unite4Health Community Garden 1005 West Worley
There will be children’s activities, light refreshments, and tours of the garden. Please share this information with any community members who may be interested in gardening at a CGC garden, starting a garden of their own, or simply curious about the role community gardens play in communities.
Last January, the Community Garden Coalition was contacted by the owners of the property that has been the home of our Ash Street Garden since 2007. They had decided to reclaim the western half of this large property for other uses. This meant we needed to clean up that half and move several gardeners and a recently installed shed over to the remaining eastern portion.
Unfortunately, on the eastern side the plots were scattered and most gardeners had installed what I called “Wild West” deer fencing around them. This was a waste of valuable space and made it nearly impossible to mow and weed eat the garden. However, despite these problems the garden was still in use by many families and the board wanted to see it used to its full potential. As we detailed in a previous post, “For Columbia Saves the Day (Again!) at Columbia’s Community Gardens,” we got invaluable help from For Columbia in April to get the garden cleaned up and ready for a re-set.
East half of Ash St. Garden during For Columbia cleanup
At that point, we had cleaned up the mess for the property owners (YAY!), but if we wanted to save the remaining garden area, there was still a lot of work to do. To add to our stress, the gardening season was already upon us, so we had to move quickly. The most important requirement for member community gardens is that they have garden leaders who communicate with gardeners and the CGC as needed. Before the cleanup I had contacted the 2024 Ash Street gardeners and explained that the garden was shrinking and to keep it open we needed volunteers to lead it and help us revamp it. The Ash Street Garden management team stepped up to oversee this large, diverse garden!
Some garden leaders and cleanup crew.
The leadership team consists of Rudra Baral, Dhruba Dhakal, Hari Koirala, and Pramod Dhakal, all of whom are past or present MU Extension scientists — a definite plus for the garden! Now that we had a team in place, I again contacted all the former gardeners and asked them to let me know ASAP if they wanted to continue. When I had a head count I went out with my husband, Matt, measured the remaining area and using a good old piece of graph paper mapped out new plots and paths that would be easy to mow around, reduce soil erosion and run south to north for maximum sun exposure.
Gardeners harvest last fall’s garlic before the tilling.
Next up, we needed to get the garden tilled. To do this, a crew of gardeners spent another long day clearing remaining trees and brush. We then hired someone to till the planned garden area. We laid out the plots with string and stakes, and the garden leaders began to assign the plots. Hoses were buried to reach the far ends of the garden from the one existing hydrant.
Finally, a crew of gardeners installed deer fencing materials that my husband hauled over there along with two gates he made to let equipment and gardeners in, while keeping out those pesky deer. No more “Wild West” make-do fencing needed! And thank you to the Veterans United Foundation, whose donation purchased the deer fencing materials.
Plots are marked and the second tilling is underway.
Installing deer fencing paid for by Veterans United Foundation.
A gardener in his plot in mid-summer.
A pair of gardeners in their plot in mid-summer.
Garden leaders and friends after installing the new garden sign. It was paid for with a Love Your Block grant!
Despite the late start, the Ash Street Garden had a productive year! There are currently over 30 garden plots producing healthful food and medicines for more than 100 family members and many more friends. With your help and donations we hope to keep this garden going for at least another 19 years!
The Community Garden Coalition has been helping Boone County residents grow healthful produce and develop gardening communities for over 40 years. One of our member gardens that I think epitomizes the ideal of community gardening is the Interfaith Garden.
From left: Lily Chan, Noah Heringman, Suzanne Hemmann, Susan DeMian and Brent Lowenberg. Photo credit: Kathy Doisy
Originally, it began in 2006 as the Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS) Community Garden, to provide a service opportunity for students at the CBS school with the harvest donated to the Food Bank. Student volunteers from MU and local secondary schools helped maintain the garden until 2009, when the St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish was asked to help.
For the past decade, this garden has raised and donated an annual average of 1,700 pounds of organic produce to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. Sustaining such a massive effort takes a lot of help!
Volunteers under the leadership of Lily Chan, Susan DeMian, Brent Lowenberg, and Noah Heringman meet 1 to 2 times a week to prepare the beds, plant, weed and harvest. The variety of produce varies with the season, but includes lettuces, spinach, radishes, mustard greens, turnips, beets, chard, kale, snow peas, collards, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, herbs, beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumber, garlic, walnuts, chestnuts, persimmons, strawberries, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and rhubarb! If I was a client of the Food Bank, I’d make sure to go on the days that Interfaith delivers!
Volunteers come from all over Columbia, but regulars include congregants from Beth Shalom, Newman Center, and our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Susan and Mike Devaney, Marilyn and Dennis Bettenhausen, and Laura Flacks-Narrol started tomato, pepper, and herb seeds and donated seedlings to the garden. A few MU College of Engineering honor societies, Student Council and Tolton High School seniors offer to volunteer in the garden one to two times a year as their service projects.
To achieve this level of success in Boone County takes more than hard work – it requires deer fencing! Interfaith was fenced many years ago with the financial help of the CGC, and plans are in the works to fence in the large orchard that surrounds the fenced vegetable garden. The local deer really like fresh fruit and frequently pick the fruit trees clean!
As the year winds down, please consider supporting Interfaith Garden and the Community Garden Coalition.
Unite4Health garden bed rehabilitation makes room for more gardeners!
As we look forward and prepare for another season of community gardens, we’re looking back at what was accomplished this year. Thanks to the efforts of one of our garden leaders at Unite4Health garden, Cheryl Jensen, there will be additional garden spots available next spring!
Before and after bed rehabilitation at Unite4Health garden in November, 2022
Cheryl’s tireless efforts, along with the help of Anne Jacobson, have really turned that garden into a little paradise for their gardeners! Cheryl had help from our favorite CCUA employee (and our newest board member) Mallary Lieber, and yours truly’s husband, Matt Knowlton, who loaded and delivered some primo compost for these beds. Then, visiting volunteers from AmeriCorps met with Cheryl to do the rehab!
Cheryl with some of her fall cropsLeft, Mallary loading compost stored for us by CCUA; right, Matt unloading compost at U4HThe AmeriCorps crew, consisting of young volunteers from all over the U.S.
Another example of the lovely synergy that exists within our community and beyond!
As we wrap up our 39th year, the Community Garden Coalition is participating in the CoMoGives local giving campaign! Please consider a making a donation to support next year’s gardens through CoMoGives! You can also give directly through PayPalor snail mail at P.O. Box 7051, Columbia, MO, 65205.
AmeriCorps volunteers helped us get two gardens back in shape!
As I mentioned in a previous post, the City recently asked us to re-establish the Britt/Hall community garden by Fire Station 8. That’s a big request because normally that sort of garden work would be done by the gardeners themselves — who, in this case, weren’t an existing group yet.
However, board members, Lindsey Smith and Cheryl Jensen were not deterred, and not only stepped up to organize the work but found a wonderful crew of volunteers from AmeriCorps to come in and get this garden ready for spring planting! It wasn’t the warmest November day, but these volunteers from all over the US got to work and got it done! Then a week later these wonderful volunteers came over to the Unite4Health garden and worked their magic there, rehabilitating some more garden beds!
Our thanks go out to: Hanna (MN), Rowan (VT), Kenyon (MS), Jessica (WI), Dylan (PA), Charlie (IL), Arx (FL), and Cassie (NY)
Here’s a little peek into some of our member gardens this year. Today, on the shortest day of the year, it’s nice to look back and see the bounty of the summer season!
We are so grateful for all the community support we’ve received this year! Direct donations and those through CoMo Gives have totaled nearly $5,000 so far!!!
It’s not too late to show your support. You can give a gift to community gardening via CoMo Gives through midnight on December 31. Every little bit helps our small organization!
Situated next to the Columbia/Boone County Health Department on City-owned property, the Unite4Health Garden offers individual plots to people from all over the community. The CGC is so happy to partner with the City of Columbia to support this large garden.
This year, we asked gardeners to share their thoughts about why they valued community gardening. A few Unite4Health gardeners shared what their community garden plots have meant to them.
“I can grow the best quality vegetables, and save an enormous amount of money, while enjoying self-sufficiency and the nurturing of a garden.” ~ Anne Jacobson, Garden Co-Leader
“The community garden has provided benefits beyond my expectations. There’s the exercise in biking or walking to and from the site along with the outside work required. I have shared the whole experience with my granddaughter as we have produced outstanding home grown tomatoes and other vegetables to savor and share with friends and neighbors. A bonus has been meeting like-minded gardeners and everyone has been extremely helpful.” ~ J.R. Holliday
“I am so grateful for my community garden plot at the Unite4Health garden. I don’t have enough sun in my yard to have one at home, and I missed gardening. I also love that I can control what goes into and on my food–no pesticides or chemical residues. There’s nothing like your own produce straight from the garden you grew yourself, and it’s so much more delicious and nutritious than store-bought. And it’s wonderful to dig in the dirt for your mental and physical health.” ~ Amanda Sprochi
There are still a few days left to show your love to community gardens in Columbia with a gift to CGC via the CoMoGives local giving campaign! We are directing half of what we raise this year to the Friendship Gardens group and the rest will help us continue supporting great gardens like Unite4Health.
And, P.S., we are so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of CoMoGives and the Community Foundation of Central Missouri. They make it so easy to give to all your favorite nonprofits that make our community what it is!
This fall, my husband Matt and I took a tour of the Interfaith Garden with Lily Chan, the garden leader. This garden is located behind the Beth Shalom synagogue at 500 W. Green Meadows Road and is a collaboration between Beth Shalom and the Newman Center. Volunteers grow a wide variety of organic produce such as greens, beans, tomatoes, okra, sweet potatoes, herbs and even persimmons for the Central Missouri Food Pantry.
When Lily showed us some planters that the Boy Scouts had built for them, I couldn’t help noticing that they looked almost identical to the ones that my husband, Matt had been building this year for us and our neighbors. When Lily mentioned that they wished they had more of these planters, I filed it away for later to ask Matt if he was willing to build some more for them. (My happy relationship tip is never volunteer your spouse/significant other without asking first!) Matt was willing! He put together an estimate for two more planters, and the Community Garden Coalition approved it and paid for the supplies. A couple of weeks later, we delivered them to the garden.
Interfaith Garden board members and Matt Knowlton (center) pose at the garden with the raised planters
Here’s what Lily had to say:
Thank you so much for the beautifully made planters you donated to the Interfaith Garden. It was a work of art. Brent, Mike, Susan, I, and all our volunteers are very grateful to you both for your generosity and kindness towards us and for contributing to the Interfaith Garden’s mission of feeding the poor in our community. And the timing is so perfect, too. We can start putting plant remains in there and top them with leaves and compost so they will be ready to be planted by spring.
This is just one of the many ways that the Community Garden Coalition is helping to support our community. Please consider making a donation to support gardens like the Interfaith Garden this December.
It’s just over halfway through December, and we’ve raised more than half of our $5,000 goal through the CoMoGives local giving program!! Thank you for all you’ve given and for sharing our message with your friends!
Speaking of halves, we’re pledging half of what we raise to the Friendship Community Garden. Find out more about this diverse, resilient garden that is trying to improve the health of their neighbors and friends with this short video from the City of Columbia.
One of the ways that the Community Garden Coalition gets funding for our efforts (besides your generous donations) is through a small grant from the City of Columbia. To receive this grant, we must apply every two years and go through the same rigorous process as agencies with paid employees. Part of the review process includes taking Health Department commissioners on a tour of one of our gardens. This year, Garden Leader Hari Poudel and other gardeners hosted this tour at the Ash Street Garden, and I went along.
That tour was a revelation for me! I wish that everyone could have been along to see how important this garden is to so many people. I always knew that we helped people grow tasty and healthful produce for themselves, family and friends, but I didn’t realize how many people originally from other countries used our gardens to grow their native produce and medicinal plants. According to Hari, there are thirty different families gardening at Ash Street, many of whom came from Nepal, Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Korea and China.
I recently asked Hari if he would mind answering the following questions so more folks could get a glimpse of the Ash Street gardening community.
Q: What inspired you to become the garden leader at Ash Street?
Hari: First, I am very glad to serve as a garden leader in the Ash St garden. The key motivational factor is my intention of serving local communities where I live. Second, when I am at the garden, I feel it is my second home. It is also a place to meet people from different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures. More importantly, a community garden can serve as a social network place which helps in enhancing social ties and building a greater feeling of community. Lastly, I am able to learn different vegetable farming practices from people from different countries. It’s a great learning opportunity.
Q: Please describe the gardeners at Ash St. and how you think the garden helps them and their families.
Hari: The garden has a broad impact at the community level. About 30 households, including 67 family members, are actively involved in Ash St garden. Gardeners have grown a wide variety of vegetables. More than 50% have been gardening for more than four years. We always have new applicants on our waiting list. The planting season starts right after our garden kick-off day in April and it will go until late October or early November. During my four year experience as a garden leader, I would say more than 90% of the gardeners depend on fresh vegetables for about 5-6 months on the garden. Thus, I would say that our garden has significantly contributed to help in providing fresh vegetables to our gardeners. I am also one of the beneficiaries.
Thanks to Hari and all the gardeners at Ash St., the Health Department commissioners were very pleased with their garden tour, and the City has once again awarded the CGC with a social services grant to continue our support for gardens like these.
This December, you can also show that you support community gardening by making a donation to the CGC through the CoMoGives local giving project. Your dollars go directly to pay for water, tools, mulch and more at gardens like Ash Street. Find our CoMoGives page here, and don’t forget to donate by December 31!
