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Small Space Gardening Workshop

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This Saturday’s workshop at Friendship Community Garden will go ahead despite the weather! We hope you’ll bundle up against the chill and join us to learn about square-foot gardening and rain barrels!

A man leans down into a small garden bed with leafy greens, his hand touching some lettuce leaves

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!

This event is part of our celebrations of our 40th Anniversary! More events will be announced soon!

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

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

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!

Warm Season Plants Ready, Thanks Due

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Warm season transplants are ready for community gardeners to pick up starting Friday. Contact your garden leader for details.

I thought it was high time to thank some people for these plants, too. While the CGC paid for the seeds, the generosity of many people was necessary to raise them. Jenny Grabner ordered materials, seeds, and donated her time to grow the plants for us. Jerry and Janice Schuerenburg, owners of Heartland Family Nursery, donated space and heat for Jenny to raise the plants in their green house. Becky Whitworth, daughter of Jerry and Janice, delivered plants and donated some miscellaneous herbs and flowers. Thanks also to the Columbia Farmers Market for donating a few flats for tomatoes and hot peppers.
Please thank these kind folks if you run into them at the farmer’s market or around town.