Category Archives: Uncategorized

Can You Help Support Community Gardens?

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collage of photos of people using community gardens along with the logos for the Community Garden Coalition and CoMoGives and text saying "Help our gardens grow with your donation! Through Midnight, December 31."

As we head into winter and our member gardens go largely dormant, we’re asking our supporters to consider making a donation to fund community gardening for 2025. You can show your support with a donation via CoMoGives, now through December 31. Here’s a note from one of our newer board members, Ginny Trauth.

Hello to all Community Garden Coalition supporters and friends!

My name is Ginny Trauth and as a fresher face to the CGC all-volunteer board I’d like to introduce myself and share what being a part of CGC means to me.

Three years ago, I stumbled into the world of community gardening when I moved to a new part of town and regularly drove past CGC’s Unite4Health garden. After some online searching I learned that that garden was part of CGC and even though I was a pretty inexperienced gardener, I decided to reach out and see if I could join.

With CGC’s assistance, through compost, water, seeds, straw, and tools, and my garden leader’s knowledge I was able to hit the ground running and quickly caught the gardening bug! Working on my garden, seeing it grow, and meeting new people in my community  became a real joy in my life. My community garden gave so much to me that I decided I needed to give back to it. First through financial donations and working on volunteer projects and, when the opportunity presented itself, as a board member.

During this time of year, when thankfulness and community are at the top of mind, I ask that you consider donating to CGC to help give back to and support an organization that gives to and supports so many!

Donations to CGC and to other wonderful community organizations can be made at through CoMoGives until December 31 at 11:59 PM.

I thank you and wish you a warm holiday season!
– Ginny Trauth

Gratitude for Community Gardening

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To all the community gardeners, leaders, volunteers and supporters out there: let’s give thanks for another gardening season!

As a gardener at Ninth St. community garden, I’m grateful for these awesome fat carrots I just harvested. And for the fellow gardeners I’ve enjoyed chatting with this year. And, as always, for my hard-working volunteer garden leader Barb, and the longtime support of landowners Mark and Carole Stevenson. 

On behalf of the whole CGC board, we are so grateful to all the landowners and garden leaders that allow the various gardens in our network to flourish.

If you were a gardener this year, please take some time now to be sure you’ve done the following things:

  1. Give us your feedback! Use this form to tell us how your gardening went this year.
  2. Tell your garden leader whether or not you want to keep using your garden through the winter or next spring.
  3. Clean up your garden plot. Ask your garden leader if you have questions about expectations for keeping your plot tidy over the winter. This is especially important if you are NOT going to use your plot again.

To all our supporters: we’re so grateful for you, too! And another opportunity to support community gardening is coming right up. We’ll be participating in the CoMoGives local giving campaign which starts on December 1. Donations made through CoMoGives form a huge part of our budget and therefore go to pay water bills, buy hoses and tools, mow the grass, purchase mulch and compost and other supplies that support community gardens.

We’re a small organization, so even a modest donation goes a long way! Watch for our emails and social media posts during the month of December for links to CoMoGives.

Unite4Health garden

Interfaith Garden

Member Garden Updates

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Attention Garden Leaders! Each year, we’d like to re-confirm all our member gardens are continuing to be kept up and review leadership contacts. Renewing your membership makes your garden continue to be eligible for CGC funds and other support. We’d like to hear from every leader, so please fill out the following short form. Thank you!

(Some folks may have already done this at our Shakespeare’s event in January. If you filled out a form at that time, then you are all set!)

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Season’s End

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frost-berries-pexelsAfter an extended fall gardening season here in Columbia and Boone County, the weather has finally cooled down. We hope you found time to harvest those final peppers, green tomatoes and sweet potatoes before the frost and to clean up your garden for the winter.

If you’ve gardened at one of our community gardens this year, here are some closing notes to think about:

  • 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 small contributions help us fund water, mulch, tools and more to support community gardening in Columbia. You can donate here.

Finally, we’d also like to note that member gardens both expanded and contracted this year. Many of our gardens added plots and welcomed more people than ever, including Ash St., Ann St., D.H. Crum, Broadway Christian and Unite 4 Health. Additionally, we welcomed the Harrisburg Schools Outdoor Classroom and the West Middle School garden as member gardens in 2016. On a sad note, however, the Benton-Stephens Community Garden on Windsor shut down after 9 years of use. Many gardeners shared warm memories about how much the garden meant to them. We know they cherished the community space the garden provided, and we thank land owner Mark Stevenson for the many years of use.

Who’s Gardening This Year? Please Let Us Know.

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How many community gardens are really in use this year? How many gardeners are there? How many people do our gardens feed? Our continued funding really depends on trying to answer these questions! To do that, we need your help.

Please take a few minutes to tell us about yourself and your garden with these annual forms.

You have an individual plot at a community garden:
We ask all individual gardeners to fill out this form (1 per household) each year.

If you help run a school or youth garden:
We have had especially poor luck finding out what’s happening this year at all the wonderful school member gardens. If you are helping run a youth garden that’s part of the CGC, please fill out this form.

And, finally, if you are part of a specialized group garden, you can report to us via our general contact form, leave us a voicemail, or email CGC president Dan Cullimore.

Thank you for your time and your effort in your garden.

Board of Directors Meeting for Tonight to Be Rescheduled

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Garden leaders or other interested parties are welcome to attend our monthly board meetings, on the second Wednesday of each month at the Columbia Public Library.

That said, we just found out that the library is unexpectedly closed tonight, so we will be rescheduling the August meeting. If anyone out there was planning to come tonight, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Edible Columbia Tour

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Take a tour of urban Columbia gardens this Sunday! You’ll learn about organic growing techniques, composting, no-till or minimal-till cultivation, mulch, edible landscapes, urban farming, fruit trees and berries, urban chickens, rain gardens, raised beds and much more!

The Edible Columbia Garden Tour and Dinner is set for 2 p.m. Sunday, May 31 and includes the Ash St. Community Garden, as well as other interesting stops, ending with a dinner at Centro Latino’s Comedor Popular.

Tickets (on a sliding scale) are available at the Peace Nook, 804-C E. Broadway, 573-875-0539. See more details here.

Please Fill Out the Annual Questionnaire

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While we’re all waiting for spring to finally arrive for real, it seems like a good time to remind all community gardeners to fill out the annual Gardener Household Information Form. We ask all individual gardeners to fill this out (1 per household) each year you garden in a member garden. Your answers will be kept private, but the data we collect helps us get our funding from year to year.

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All About Growing Peppers

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Steve with peppersGrowing Peppers, From Seed to Salsa
Monday, February 18 › 1-2:30 p.m.
Columbia Public Library, Friends Room
Get the details here.

Gardener Steve Donofrio is an expert at growing all the best ingredients to make some of the best salsa you’ll ever taste. If you’re planning to grow peppers, either sweet or hot, this year, don’t miss his free class at the public library. He’ll cover everything from starting seeds to harvesting. Warm-weather plants like peppers should be started from seed indoors in late winter in our area, so this class is very well-timed.