Workshops Update

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It’s the 40th year for the Community Garden Coalition, and to celebrate we’re organizing some public workshops on various gardening topics all season long! Please note that as our plans have come into focus, our small space gardening workshop events have changed from their original dates. There will no longer be a workshop on April 8 or May 13 as was originally planned.

Instead, please join us to learn about small space gardening and DIY rain barrels on the following date:

Gardeners look over a small garden plot while holding a watering can

Small Space Gardening Workshop

Saturday, April 22 at 12 p.m.
Friendship Community Garden
1707 Smiley Lane

Learn about square-foot gardening and DIY rain barrels at this demonstration event.

Square-foot gardening is a popular method of growing an intensive vegetable garden in less space. It is also very water and resource-efficient. Visit a working square-foot garden and discuss how to fit in all your favorite veggies. Gary Carter of Friendship garden will also discuss how he sourced and installed the DIY rain barrels that help gardeners water there.

Participants will get a free space-saving heirloom tomato seedling!

Our earlier spring workshops focused on learning how to prune the fruit trees and elderberry bushes that make a nice addition on the margins of some of our community gardens. Thanks to our board member Mallary Lieber for leading those events!

Mallary and Cheryl stand with pruning tools at the Unite4Health garden
three people stand next to a ladder beneath a tree debating a pruning cut.
participants in an elderberry pruning workshop pose for a photo in the Kilgore's garden, bundled up against cold weather
workshop leader Mallary, dressed in a winter coat and hat, holds hand pruners to the bare branch of an elderberry shrub and smiles for the camera

We hope you’re able to get your garden ready and growing soon!

Low raised beds, some freshly built, are filled with fresh soil and compost next to a fence at Ridgeway school, while a mom and child stand to one side. Text on the photo reads "Ready for planting!"
several gardeners and leaders pose for the camera while holding packets of seeds, standing in the early spring garden at Ash St.
several people gather in the early spring at Friendship garden, dressed for cool weather

Elderberry Pruning Workshop Postponed for Rain

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Update 4/2: Please note, our small space gardening workshops have been reformulated and will no longer take place on April 8 & May 13. Watch for more details about an April workshop soon!

Our series of workshops for our gardeners and other interested community members continues, but tomorrow’s event will be postponed! Here’s more information on that and our next event.

Elderberry Pruning Workshop
NEW DATE: Saturday, March 18, 2:30 p.m.
Kilgore’s Community Garden, 700 N. Providence Rd.
Because of the forecast for rain on Saturday, March 11, we’re moving to our rain date of March 18. Still free and open to all! Participants will learn how to prune elderberries, a wonderful native fruiting plant, and go home with a cutting along with instructions about how and where to plant. Led by Mallary Lieber of the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture and the Community Garden Coalition.

Small Space Gardening Workshops
Saturdays April 8 & May 13, 2:30 p.m.
Friendship Community Garden, 1707 Smiley Lane
Get tips and tricks on fitting all your favorite vegetables into a 4×4′ garden. Visit a working square-foot garden, practice planting with a square-foot grid, and strategize succession planting for the best harvest. Participants will receive Tom Thumb lettuce seeds at the April workshop and an heirloom tomato space-saving seedling at the May workshop.

Early March Update & Elderberry Workshop

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Update: Our rain date for the Elderberry Pruning Workshop will be Saturday, March 18!

Kicking off the gardening season, this year, the Community Garden Coalition held our first in-person garden leaders meeting in three years last month! It was great to see everyone in person again! If you’re a leader of a neighborhood OR a school garden who missed out, we can’t offer you any of the tasty meal catered by Beet Box, BUT, we do have posted the packet of information shared at the meeting. Be sure to check it out on our Resources for Garden Leaders page if you want to know more about how to get resources or funding for your garden this year.

We have also started a series of workshops for our gardeners and other interested community members in celebration of our 40th anniversary. The workshops will take place throughout the 2023 growing season at various sites. On February 18, we held our first event, a fruit tree pruning workshop led by Mallary Lieber of the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture and the Community Garden Coalition.

a person standing on a ladder in an apple tree points at a branch while another person holds a ladder and other participants look on.
workshop leader Mallary demonstrates the angle of a pruning cut with her hand on a small branch.
three people stand next to a ladder beneath a tree debating a pruning cut.

Our next event is an Elderberry Pruning Workshop with Mallary THIS SATURDAY, March 11 at 2:30 p.m. at Kilgore’s Community Garden, 700 N. Providence Rd. Participants will learn how to prune elderberries, a wonderful native fruiting plant, and go home with a cutting along with instructions about how and where to plant.

We’ll share more details soon about other opportunities on topics like straw bale gardening, small space gardens, kids in the garden, pests, encouraging pollinators & native plants!

We’re also hard at work on a new shed project at the Claudell garden and getting ready to distribute seeds and cool season plants to member gardens. Stay tuned!

Off to a Great Start for Our 40th Year

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This year is the 40th anniversary of the Community Garden Coalition, and we are off to a great start due to some very successful year-end fundraising!

We exceeded our goal of $6,000 through CoMoGives and received corporate gifts from two local Walmarts totalling $2,750 along with a $500 gift from UScellular. But the most surprising donation happened in early December when we were contacted by Jim Robertson, the chair of the Reality House Programs board of directors. 

Reality House operated as a local, non-profit for 50 years offering a community-based alternative to incarceration. Unfortunately it lost the state funding it relied on two years ago and had to shut down. As a last gift to the Columbia community the board of directors decided the best way to disburse their remaining funds was to donate to three local, non-profits that they felt had supported their clientele over the years. The Community Garden Coalition was one of the lucky recipients, and we were given a $10,000 donation!!

Needless to say, we can help a lot of people with such a generous gift! While we are grateful for everyone’s support, we want to especially thank the Reality House Programs board of directors:

  • Jim Robertson
  • Rusty Antell
  • Frank Aten
  • Carroll Highbarger
  • Bob Perry
  • Jim Ritter
  • Matt Woods

THANK YOU for Showing Your Support!

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Graphic saying "Thank You!!!! December Donors Your support will help us in our 40th year of community gardening!" and featuring a photo of several volunteers posed at a garden and smiling for the camera

We are thrilled to report that the Coalition has received over $6,000 in donations this year through our CoMoGives campaign!!! We also received some other donations in December, and we’re so grateful to all our donors!

These gifts mean A LOT to our small, all-volunteer organization! We are so happy to have community support and enthusiasm for our mission as we move into our 40th year as an organization! (That’s right, the CGC got its start in 1983!)

Of course, if you meant to donate and missed the CoMoGives deadline, please know that you can donate anytime via our PayPal donations portal.

We wish all of our gardeners, volunteers and supporters a Happy New Year. We hope you can spend this winter planning your best garden ever!

Last Chance to Give Through CoMoGives

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We have reached the final few days of the CoMoGives local giving campaign, a truly inspired homegrown effort to support all kinds of nonprofit groups in Mid-Missouri. If you have the means to donate this year, we hope you’ll hop over to the CoMoGives site and give a gift to the Community Garden Coalition or another charity that’s close to your heart.

We’re thrilled with the support we’ve seen so far for community gardening as we get ready for our fortieth year! (That’s right, the CGC has been around since 1983!) We’re 2/3 of the way to our goal of raising $6,000 through CoMoGives this year.

As a supporter, you know we’re an all-volunteer group, run by a very small board and a hard-working set of garden leaders. In 2022, we supported over a dozen gardens used by hundreds of gardeners. When we asked our gardeners to tell us what community gardening means to them this year, we heard some inspiring words indeed!

graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? It means a lot because I can grow my own food. I saved a lot on vegetables growing my own."
graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? Time in the sun and hands in the dirt keep me grounded and sane during the summer."
graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? A space to dream and go be outdoors for a bit."
graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? I am really thankful for it, and it got me to garden for the first time. I learned a lot, and want to continue doing it. It is great."
graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? I feel part of a great community of gardeners. I learn from them, share with them, enjoy their company."
graphic tile with botanical ornaments, the CGC logo and "What Does Your Community Garden Mean to You? We stock our pantry with the bounty of the garden."

The Garden Coalition depends on the continued generosity of supporters like you to continue serving these gardens. If you have already given, thank you! If you have not given and have the means, please consider a gift through CoMoGives by midnight this Saturday, December 31.

Donate to CoMoGives!

Thank you so much for your support and interest in our mission! Here’s to a happy New Year 2023 and more great gardens as the CGC turns 40!

More Garden Plots at Unite4Health

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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 crops
Left, Mallary loading compost stored for us by CCUA; right, Matt unloading compost at U4H
The 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 PayPal or snail mail at P.O. Box 7051, Columbia, MO, 65205.

Donate via CoMoGives through December 31!

Work Day at the New Britt/Hall Garden

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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)

Americorps volunteers pose with shovels while helping rehabilitate low raised garden beds in early winter.
Americorps volunteers loosen the soil and spread compost in low raised garden beds at a community garden on an early winter day.
Americorps volunteers spread compost in low raised garden beds at a community garden on an early winter day. A shed with a solar panel is in the background.
Three volunteers look at the camera as they lean over the back of a pickup full of garden debris.
Americorps volunteers and garden leaders pose kneeling and standing in two rows in an open area with grass in front and bare trees behind them.
Americorps volunteers loosen shovel up and spread compost in low raised garden beds at a community garden on an early winter day.
Three volunteers pause while working to spread compost in several low raised beds on an early winter day at the Unite4Health community garden.
Volunteers pause while working to clear weeds and spread compost in several abandoned low raised beds on an early winter day at the Unite4Health community garden.

P.S. Don’t forget that you can help us support the Britt/Hall Garden, and all the member community gardens through Dec. 31 when you donate to the Community Garden Coalition through CoMoGives. Your small donation means a lot

A Great Start to CoMoGives! Thank You!

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Wow! We are so grateful for all the support received on Giving Tuesday through CoMoGives!!! With over $1,800 received in the first day of our campaign, we’re so happy to have the support of our community as we get ready to celebrate our 40th anniversary in 2023!

Thank you so much to those who’ve given! We will put your gifts to good use supporting Columbia’s community gardeners.

If you haven’t given, yet, don’t worry — CoMoGives continues through December 31! Just visit our page at CoMoGives.com.

Your Donations Help Community Gardens Thrive!

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It’s that time of year again when we ask you to consider making a donation to support the Community Garden Coalition via the CoMoGives local giving campaign.

This was a great year for our group. We’ve expanded our services with more raised beds and equipment for disabled and elderly gardeners, while increasing the number of neighborhood gardens (check out Britt/Hall at Fire Station #8). But here’s the really big news — we’ll be celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2023!

collage of photos showing a child watering a garden, a woman waving hello in a garden, a man standing in a garden with a shovel, a group of teens and a child digging in a garden and a pile of harvested collard greens. A message reads "Help our gardens grow with your donation! November 29-December 31 CoMoGives.com"

We may be one of the smallest all-volunteer, nonprofits in this area but we are mighty. What started in 1983 as a way to help some low-income residents produce their own healthy food has grown into a community-wide pursuit with hundreds of people from all walks of life participating. Obviously, we couldn’t have done this on our own — over the years we’ve had financial help from the City of Columbia, the United Way, the Community Foundation of Central Missouri, Walmart and Sam’s Club to name a few of the larger organizations. We’ve also relied on donations of land use, time, materials and money from thousands of generous individuals over the years.

Today, on Giving Tuesday, we’re counting on your support once again! It’s easy to give to CGC and all your favorite local nonprofits at www.comogives.com now through December 31.

Why should you donate?

  • Over half of local community gardeners are at or below the federal poverty level and the gardens are a significant source of healthy food for their families. 
  • Community gardens not only improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables but, increase physical activity and reduce stress.
  • Community gardens fill vacant lots with neighbors who work together, creating social ties that build a greater feeling of community and safety
  • Community gardens improve the air and soil, increase biodiversity and reduce stormwater runoff and the carbon footprint of our gardeners.    
  • All donations to the CGC go 100% to member gardens because we’re an all-volunteer nonprofit.
six older people stand in front of a table with their hands on a large watermelon
Cambridge Place gardeners with their first watermelon of the year
a group of gardeners poses for a late summer photo showing flat boxes full of peaches on the ground in front of them
Unite4Health gardeners with this year’s peach crop
three dark brown homemade sweet potato pies on a table
Sweet potato pies made from Friendship Garden produce

So please consider giving to our organization during CoMoGives. Any amount will help and small donations are our bread and butter!

Donate via CoMoGives through December 31!

Whether or not you’re able to give, thank you for a being a friend and supporter!

Kathy Doisy, President
Jenny McDonald, Vice-President
Bill McKelvey, Treasurer
Cheryl Jensen
Sarah Kendrick
Mallary Lieber
Lindsey Smith