Tuesday, March 31, 2015

What's growin' on this Spring with the Gardens Project!

The Gardens Project is feeling the spring fever, and we want to tell you all about it! 


Students from the Ukiah Junior Academy volunteering at the Vinewood Park Community Garden in March


We are digging into our 9th year of community garden work with fresh new ideas on the horizon as well as old events coming back to life... all to grow food and community in our beautiful Northern California land!

Wanna learn about all we're doing and get involved? Here's a look at what's growin' on, click on the links to dig deeper into each topic.

New Garden Projects in Mendocino and Lake Counties

We are working with communities from Leggett to Lucerne this year to help build new garden projects for different communities, agencies, and apartments. The first few groups we'll be working with this year include:

North Shore in Lucerne will have new raised beds for easier gardening!

 More about projects in Leggett, Boonville, and Hopland coming soon!

Garden Leadership Training in Ukiah

Garden Leaders from the Arbor, Jack Simpson & Village Circle
Community Garden Managers from 7 gardens in Ukiah are in the middle of a 4 week training to become effective leaders for their gardens- with lessons on community building, communication, event planning and more!
Participating are leaders from the Arbor Youth Resource Center, Vinewood Park, Village Circle, State St, Washington Ave, Thunderbird and Jack Simpson Gardens.



The Gardeners' Gathering


A NEW EVENT FOR THE GP- the Gardeners Gathering will bring together community and home gardeners from Lake and Mendocino Counties together to learn and share gardening skills, with a special presentation on the Drought and how it impacts our gardens, mini-workshops, free seeds, plant starts, resources and more!

FREE and ALL are welcome to attend, click here for more details.


Supporters of the Gardens Project 

Fetzer Vineyards has partnered with the GP to donate 5% of their Community Wine Sale proceeds to community garden development! Community Wine Sales are held at Fetzer in Hopland every other month during the year. We are grateful for this new partnership that will provide funding for garden projects throughout the year! 
The next Community Wine Sale starts now! Place your orders by Friday, April 10th to pick up your wine at Fetzer on Saturday, April 18th. Click here for ordering information.


SAUCY restaurant in Ukiah will be hosting a Dine-Out day for the Gardens Project on Tuesday, April 21st. Come to Saucy all day for a meal and we'll be donated a portion of the proceeds from the day! Don't forget that it will be Earth Day WEEK- so there will be local farm fresh specials on the menu!




Want to make a donation to the Gardens Project?
You can donate online at anytime, just click here!

We also sell our Gardens Project T-shirts for a $20 donation (for pick up in Ukiah). Contact GP Coordinator, Stephanie, at 462-1958 or slogsdon@ncoinc.org to get one!





The Homegrown Garden Tour- coming back to life!

Genaro in the Cleveland Lane Garden showing off his Nopales in 2012!

Have you been to the Homegrown Garden Tour in Ukiah? It's been a few years since the GP has hosted the tour for the community to visit the gardens, but this year it's coming back this August! Keep a check on our events page for tour information.






Gardens Project VIDEOS

Did you know that the GP had a video intern last summer? Kenny Logsdon, Anthropology student at Appalachian State University, spent last summer interviewing our community gardeners and documenting workshops.

Take a look at this video about our drip irrigation workshop last summer- and then get inspired to set yours up to for water conservation!



Thank you for your continued support of community and school gardens in Mendocino and Lake Counties!




Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Sneak preview to some great gardening links!

Word on the street is that there is an awesome gardening workshop this Saturday March 7th at the Grace Lutheran Church and Community Garden from 10am-Noon!
Free seeds and plant starts!

Check out a selection of great online resources about gardening below:





Cover Crops



Cut Flowers

  Growing and Selection: 

Harvesting Fruits and Vegetables

  Chart for Mendocino County: 

How to Harvest Fruits and Vegetables:

Pest Control

  Benificial Insects: 


  Natural Garden Pest Control: 

Pollinators


Pruning Fruit Trees

  How to Prune Fruit Trees: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html

Raised Beds

  How to Make a Raised Bed From Pallets:

  How to Build a Raised Bed (Plans):


Soil

  Improvement and Care: 

Tool Care


Vegetable Spacing and planting Guides


  Planting Chart for Mendocino County:



Weeds