New year for the gardens

We're off to another great start in the community gardens, and this year we're better than ever. The gardens at Park Place Health Care Center are double the size they were last year thanks to the generosity of Park Place. They stretch from the western edge of the property all the way to the road. Wade Crouch from the County Extension Office plowed, tilled and fertilized the entire garden this spring, and the City of Great Falls dumped several loads of bark chips down the center aisle.

Ace Hardware is also stepping up to the plate by reconfiguring our water system. Instead of all of us sharing one spigot, they're going to run a water line down the center with numerous hose bibs for people to use. Plus, they are donating a screened gazebo to allow the Park Place residents (and weary gardeners) to sit in insect free comfort. It will be a lovely addition to the grounds. Bob Ford at Ace is also making all of us name plaques to identify our garden spaces.

Today we had our open house and pot luck to greet the Park Place gardeners, and get everyone started. Despite an ominous forecast as soon as yesterday, the afternoon was perfect. It was great food and great company.

Last Saturday we had the open house for the Electric City Conservatory garden, although we abbreviated the event from potluck to tea and cookies since it did rain on us on several occasions. There are an enthusiastic bunch of gardeners - some veterans, some rookies - who will make it a successful season no matter what the weather throws our way.

Once again, these gardens are due to the generosity of Gary Petrini from Electric City Conservatory/Flower Farm. Gary helped out the youth group from Our Saviors Lutheran Church under the direction of the Energizer Bunny, Casey Bailey, by providing the lot, as well as fencing and free water. Casey led the kids into growing vegetables for Meals on Wheels. Always busy, he's taken on more duties and working on bringing more local food to the Central Montana area so wasn't able to maintain the program. Thankfully, he passed the torch onto River City Harvest. We intend to keep the Electric City Gardens as our organic gardens and do our best to improve the gorgeous soil Casey created. The raised beds are lovely and ideal for intensive planting.

In both gardens we have spaces set aside to grow specifically for the Food Bank and Meals on Wheels here in Great Falls. There are teams of Master Gardeners forming for both areas to stay on top of planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. We've had 1400 packets of seeds donated to us by Seeds of Change, Ace Hardware and the America the Beautiful Fund. A gentleman west of town also gave us more than 5 dozen pepper plants (which I still have to transplant and baby in the greenhouse for a few more weeks). There's plenty to plant, which is good because there are plenty to feed.

There will be more updates soon. With news about the gardens at University of Great Falls, the Salvation Army (they're growing for their food services program), CMR High School and a few more in the works there is a lot to tell.

Amy Grisak will be speaking at Forde's Nursery on Saturday, May 15 at 10 a.m. about everything that's happening with the community gardens, or drop us a note with any questions you might have.

Dog days of summer

It's been a busy summer, but despite a late start and early gopher problems, we can consider it a success. The garden has gone from bare ground to a lush jungle of plants and vines. Harvesting is well under way, and we've even been able to take some to the Meals on Wheels Program including most of the 120 cabbages, as well as tomatoes, spaghetti squash, zucchini and Swiss chard. The grape tomatoes are finally kicking is, so Deb and I picked a couple of large yogurt containers last Monday for the Park Place residents, and we'll keep on top of them as long as they're producing.

Looking Good!

It feels like summer is finally here, and everything is looking great in the Park Place garden. The gophers are finally under control, most people have things planted, and now it's a matter of watering, feeding, mulching and waiting.

We had a youth group from San Diego come out last week to help mulch the cabbage and tomatoes for the Park Place and food bank plots, as well as stake the tomatoes. They're newbies in the gardening realm, but did fine. I was grateful for the help since it's been a challenge keeping up with watering and other duties.

It's very interesting to see everyone's gardening style. I keep saying I'm going to write an article on how gardens and gardeners' personalities coordinate. Some people are extremely neat and tidy. Everything is organized and gorgeous. Others (me) are hooshels - things are planted, but it's not necessarily pretty. I love walking through and seeing how everyone is doing their own thing. It's a community garden with lots of individuality!

We're stilll looking for volunteers to help water and harvest for the food banks when the time comes so email us at rivercityharvest@yahoo.com if you're interested.

Extraordinary Generosity!

Monday I received a call from Carol Lamphier at Hillside Gardens (http://www.hillsidegardens.biz/) to let me know she had some extra plants she wanted to donate to the community gardens. I thought it might be a couple of flats, which was thrilling enough to me, so imagine my delight when over half the bed of my truck was filled with tomatoes, cabbage, Romaine lettuce and parsley! Such a wonderful gift! She had the tomatoes soaking in water to keep them hydrated, and I kept my speeds below 60mph so everything transported without a problem.

Last night I took a few hours planting them in the RCH plots, as well as the one for the Park Place residents. There are a lot of the special grape tomatoes that are perfect for snacking. I think they'll be ideal for seniors' lunches. The 'Stonehedge' variety of cabbage is a solid standby, so we should have plenty of heads to give to the food bank and any charitable organization who has a need for a lot of slaw! I planted the 28 Romaine plants near the squash given to us. This way they'll be long gone by the time the squash overtake their area, but at least something is growing in the now empty space.

Opening Day!

Yes! We are finally in the garden. This morning gardeners and volunteers came out to start clearing their plots and planting. With quite a bit of raking it looks downright respectable! We had plenty of space for everyone, including a couple of half-plots, plus a whole on open for anyone interested. (This resulted from my measuring yesterday afternoon in the heat. I managed to squeeze in an extra plot in the garden space.... yet another reason I'm a writer and not a mathmatician.) Whatever is not taken will be added to our effort to grow for the food bank and Meals on Wheels.

Despite toasty temps, everyone seemed excited to be there, and did a great job of preparing their areas. There are even a few organized souls who planted. The garden looks barren now, but will be lush and green before we know it.

We Have a Garden Space!

After trying a couple of different tactics to break the ground at the Park Place Gardens, we finally have a proper garden area. First we used the tractor and tiller. That bounced off the ground. The tractor and duck foot plow didn't do much better. Thankfully, Wade had a friend with a 100HP tractor that did the trick. They plowed roughly a foot deep thoroughly loosening the ground. Grant drove the tractor and tiller back over last Saturday evening and tilled it twice.

Even though it's plantable, since it's the first year it's still pretty rough. Wade hauled away roughly 500lbs of rock and concrete, and Grant picked up more when he tilled. I'm sure we'll find more when we plant. There's also a considerable amount of grass clumps that will need to be raked and cleared. But the bottom line is we have a garden!

Saturday, May 30, is our opening day. Volunteers and those renting plots will work together to prep the beds and begin planting. Join us at 10 a.m. to meet each other, work side by side and kick off the gardening season.

Trying to Till

Despite receiving plenty of precipitation in the last couple of weeks, the ground at the Park Place Community Garden was too much for the tiller. Grant tried to break through the packed ground and grass for a couple of hours without much success except for outlining the perimeter. We tried to find some sort of plow to use instead, but couldn't locate anything on Saturday. Thankfully, we will be able to rent a Ford 3000 and duck foot plow from Peterson's, and Wade will plow on Thursday.

Opening day is scheduled for Saturday, May 16 when the Plot Takers can sign up for their spot, and start gardening. We'll also have push tillers there to go over the area before planting since the plow will probably leave it too clumpy. Volunteers will be on hand to help clear areas and remove any rocks (although I don't think it'll be a huge problem). Deb has a mini yoga session slated, and is compiling a fantastic packet of gardening information. The weather forecast looks wonderful (at this point), and I'm sure it'll be a great day!