Spotlight on Ash St. Garden

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Now that the weather’s turned and most of our gardens are dormant, it’s a good moment to look back on this season. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting some of our member gardens, starting today with Ash St. Garden.

One of the largest community gardens in Columbia, Ash St. Garden provided plots for more than 25 families this year and those plots helped feed about 85 family members. Garden leader Hari Poudel offered these pictures of the garden plots growing all kinds of vegetables in mid-June.

Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017 Ash St. garden in June 2017

Season’s End

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kale planting in late fall, photo by Bill McKelveyAs 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.

Warm Season Transplants This Weekend

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passing a bowl of cherry tomatoes from one pair of hands to another This Saturday and Sunday, May 6 & 7, the CGC will offer seedlings of warm-season vegetables to gardeners at our member gardens. We’ll have varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Sweet potato slips will be available too.

Saturday, May 6, 10 a.m to 2 p.m.
Sunday, May 7, 12 to 1 p.m.
at Claudell Commuity Garden,
711 Claudell Lane (map)

Plants are free to member gardeners, but we welcome donations of $1-$2 per 4-pack to help offset the cost. Row cover will be available for sale.

Cool Season Transplants This Weekend

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photo of cauliflower and cabbagesThis weekend, April 8 & 9, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday and Noon-2 p.m. on Sunday, the CGC will have broccoli, green and red cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, lettuce and swiss chard seedlings available for those gardening at our member gardens. Plants will be distributed at the Claudell Garden, 711 Claudell Lane.

If you are able to make a donation of 25-50¢ per plant, this helps offset our costs of buying and transporting them. We ask that you give what you can, but you will not be refused for lack of a donation.

We may also have some row cover available. This lightweight material can help protect young plants from chewing insects while still letting light and water through. It is used with metal hoops to hold it up over your plants. We suggest a donation of 25¢ per linear foot.

Please note: we can only offer this service to those gardening in our member gardens, not the public at large.

Community Gardening Season Kicks Off

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It’s definitely time to think about green veggies and spring gardening! We’re getting more requests for new garden plots every week, and we have our kick-off events coming up soon. Here’s what’s on tap!

Spring Thaw Community Gardening Kick-Off

Saturday, February 25, 2017
Noon-2 p.m.

ARC (Activities & Recreation Center), 1701 W. Ash St.

This is an informal event where new or returning gardeners can drop in to meet garden leaders and fellow gardeners can talk about plans for the new gardening season. Representatives from our member gardens will all be gathered in one place to get organized and sign up new gardeners. Seeds will be distributed free of charge, and we’ll have a few snacks and drinks available.

And to prepare for giving away those seeds. . .

Seed Repacking Party

Monday, February 20, 6-8 p.m. at Centro Latino

Gardeners and volunteers are invited to help us make seed packets to be given away at the Spring Thaw. Because we provide some food, we have to limit the attendance. If you wish to attend, you must RSVP to dan@comogardens.org NO LATER than 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 15.

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.

Warm Season Plants Saturday & Sunday

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tomato-Manjith KainickaraWarm season plants and sweet potato slips will be offered to gardeners from member gardens THIS WEEKEND!!

CGC will distribute tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet), eggplant and sweet potato slips this weekend. We also still have some seeds, row cover and hoops available.

Come pick up some plants at the Claudell Lane Garden:
Saturday, May 14 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or Sunday, May 15 from 12-2 p.m.

Payment is not required, but we encourage voluntary donations (25 to 50¢ per plant and 25¢ per row cover would help a lot). This helps offset our costs and allows us to continue to serve even those who cannot afford to donate.

Cool Weather Transplants This Weekend

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cabbage-1064621_1280This weekend, April 2 & 3, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday and Noon-2 p.m. on Sunday, the CGC will have broccoli and cabbage, kale, lettuce and chard seedlings available for those gardening at our member gardens. Plants will be distributed at the Claudell Garden, 711 Claudell Lane.

We are requesting a donation of 25-50¢ per plant to offset our costs of buying and transporting them. We ask that you give what you can, but you will not be refused for lack of a donation.

Also: row cover! This lightweight material can help protect young plants from chewing insects while still letting light and water through. We will have some available, along with metal hoops to hold it up in your garden. We ask a donation of 25¢ per linear foot.

Please note: we can only offer this service to those gardening in our member gardens, not the public at large.