Did you know? The Community Garden Coalition has been around since 1983, supporting gardens, health, nutrition and community.

This year, we counted 31 member gardens to which we offer support. Right now, we’re getting ready to be a part of CoMo Gives, a donation project that has just as much community spirit as we do. We hope you’ll shake down the couch cushions for a few extra dollars to see if you can help us fund another year of water, mowers, mulch and hoses!

It all starts on #GivingTuesday!

(Wondering about the lovely felt banner pictured here? To the best of our knowledge it was made by generous and talented former CGC board member Barb Michaels.)

Well, that was an early snow! The 2018 gardening season has come to a close with some record low temperatures in Mid-Missouri this month. Before you shift away from thinking about gardening for the winter, please do the following.

• If you’re at a community or group garden, let your garden leader know whether you’re planning to return next year. This will help leaders know what plots will be available for newcomers next year.
• Clean up your plot. If you need tips on how to put your garden to bed for the winter, consult your garden leader.
• Consider making a year-end donation to the CGC to help with maintaining your community garden next year. We’re a very small, all-volunteer non-profit, and even modest contributions help us fund water, mulch, tools and more to support community gardening in Columbia.
  Donate here today, or wait for December when the CGC will be participating in the CoMo Gives local giving campaign.
• Consider donating some of your time. Individual gardens need good leaders and team members and the board of the CGC could use some new members, too. Contact your garden leader or our board members to get involved.

Our good friend Dan Cullimore passed away recently. Losing Dan is hard. He was generous with his time. He was smart and funny. He was someone you could go to with all sorts of questions. His positive attitude was one of his most endearing and helpful attributes.

For the Community Garden Coalition, Dan was first a gardener at the Circus-Lyons Community Garden (which he helped establish), then a garden leader there, then a board member. He eventually became president of the board and led our organization until he needed to resign to focus on his health earlier this year.

Having Dan at the helm helped us feel assured. He was an excellent ambassador for our group and for community gardening in general. He was reasoned and thoughtful when it came to making tough decisions. He even helped us grow up a little as an organization by working to formalize a variety of policies and procedures – no one’s idea of fun, but something that needed to be done.

The outpouring of kind words and remembrances from friends and family is a reminder of the place Dan occupies in our hearts and community. We will miss him greatly. We will carry his spirit with us.

As frost creeps over the veggies, the weeds and the soil, the gardening season is coming to a close in Mid-Missouri again. Before you shift away from thinking about gardening for the winter, please do the following.

• If you’re at a community or group garden, let your garden leader know whether you’re planning to return next year. This will help leaders know what plots will be available for newcomers.
• Clean up your plot. If you need tips on how to put your garden to bed for the winter, consult your garden leader.
• Consider making a year-end donation to the CGC to help with maintaining your community garden next year. We’re a very small, all-volunteer non-profit, and even modest contributions help us fund water, mulch, tools and more to support community gardening in Columbia.
  Donate here today, or wait for December when the CGC will be participating in the CoMo Gives local giving campaign.