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!)
After 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:
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.
Monday evening, Sept. 21, the Columbia Public Library hosts author and community garden organizer LaManda Joy at a free event co-sponsored by the Mizzou Botanic Garden. Check it out: http://www.dbrl.org/cal/mizzou+botanic
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.
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.
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.
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.
Growing 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.
Despite the relentless heat and drought, autumn will surely come to Mid-Missouri eventually, and it might be a great year to try a fall garden. Come get some free advice on Fall Gardening, at a discussion led by Bill McKelvey, president of the Community Garden Coalition. Bill has been a fall gardener for many years and will share some ideas for growing a host of cool season vegetables in the fall and early winter.
Tuesday, July 31, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Ash Street Community Garden, 201 West Ash Street
Behind the brown apartment building, look for the garden sign on the back fence.
This event is sponsored by the Community Garden Coalition and University of Missouri Extension. Registration is not required. Please contact Bill McKelvey for more information.
Jim Quinn, our local horticulture extension agent, will host a FREE organic pest control workshop Monday, May 21 at the Health Department. We’ll start inside at 6 p.m. then head out to the garden for demonstration and questions.
The Health Department is located at 1005 W. Worley St.
Community Garden Coalition 