A Year in Review

We are often asked, "How many Gardens do you have?"
Our Reply? "NONE!"

However to this date, the Gardens Project has facilitated the development of 34 community gardens in Mendocino and Lake counties. 

Just in the past year, we've developed two new community gardens in Ukiah, hosted leadership development training for gardeners, updated and expanded the capacity of several existing gardens, and strengthened partnerships with many.

Here's a summary of all the fun we've had in the last year!

Coastal Garden Leaders at their first meeting in Janurary 2014, they graduate next month! 

Garden Leadership Trainings
Over the last three years, we've trained 60 gardeners in Mendocino County to become leaders for their community gardens, increasing the sustainability of gardens and building community. Since January, we've worked with 20 of those leaders of on coast, and a group of leaders in Willits from our 2013 training have continued to meet. The Willits leaders hosted a garden tour on August 25th.

The capstone project of a year long leadership training is the Photovoice Project. Participants take photos from their gardens and add captions to capture aspects of their garden experiences to share with community members and policy makers. Click here to view Photovoice Projects. 

Pinoleville Youth Build Students working at Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves Senior Apartments
20 new raised beds were created in Early Fall 2013 for Autumn Leaves. The Gardens Project partnered with and the Pinoleville Pomo Nation YouthBuild Program to create the raised beds. North Cal Wood Products donated redwood and Cold Creek Compost donated compost to fill all the new beds. All three have donated their time and resources to many other gardens working with the Gardens Project.  See all the photos of the beds being constructed by these resourceful youth at our Autumn Leaves Photo Album!

Vinewood Park at the Peak of the Season!

Vinewood Park Community Garden
Vinewood Park Community Garden is a collaboration between the City of Ukiah and The Gardens Project. The Garden is located along the North end of the park, along the fence line in an area previously underused and covered in ivy. The garden provides 12 wheel-chair accessible raised beds serving the Walnut Village Senior Apartments as well as 16 additional beds for neighboring families and individuals. Pinoleville YouthBuild, our most valuable partner in garden construction, built the fence, raised beds and communication board for the garden. See more pictures of the garden!

Village Circle Gardeners, October 2014

Village Circle Community Garden
Village Circle Community Garden was developed in partnership with private land owners. This garden is one of the largest community gardens in Ukiah with 49 plots, second only to the State Street Garden which currently has 54 garden plots. Gardeners from the Cleveland Lane Community Garden have transitioned to this new garden in preparation for their garden closing due to expansion of the Grace Hudson Museum.  Directly south of the garden are the Summer Creek apartments, who's residents are also participating in the garden. Thank you to Jason Dolan and Dark Horse Farming Company for providing labor and materials for the fencing, and also Ukiah Natural Foods for awarding the Gardens Project with a $2,000 grant to purchase fencing.

Tons of information for gardeners to see on the new boards.

New Communication Boards
 Five boards were created for gardens to post communications, gardening information by the students of the PinolevilleYouth Build Program.

Seed Starting and Transplanting Workshop, March 2014

Gardening Workshops
Starting in Janurary 2014, the Gardens Project started a series of workshops that take a new gardener step by step through the gardening cycle. We are so thankful for all of our workshop presenters, and are looking forward to the ones still to come!

Past Workshops in 2014
Janurary: Planning your Garden with Brooke Wilder
March: Seed Starting and Transplanting with Carolyn Brown
April: Water Conservation with Linda Macelwee
May: Bed Preparation with Luke Howerter
June: Drip Irrigation with Peter Reynolds
July: Natural Pest Management with Dan Storm

Upcoming Workshops
Oct 11th:Composting with Luke Howerter
Oct 18th: Row Cover Season Extension with Gloria Jarrell