Our Community Garden Plot

Here are a few pictures of the community garden plot Jenni and I will be planting. It was supposed to be done over a month ago but at this point we're just happy to start growing some of our own food.  Our plot is in Denver at Colfax and Josephine directly next to East High School.

This garden is a huge step in the right direction for this community as well.  This lot was filled with trash, broken concrete and tons of other unmentionables.  The Colfax Corridor is a little run down to say the least.  However, projects like this are completely changing the landscape(no pun intended) of this part of town.  There's a farmers market directly next door to here and Marczyk Fine Foods is opening a second locations about 4 blocks west of here on Colfax.  Not to mention great organizations like, Same Cafe, who also has their own garden plot here, is just down the road.  Same Cafe's motto is "So All May Eat."  Your lunch costs whatever you can afford.  If you don't have any money, your lunch is free.  We're trying to work out how excess crops grown here can be donated to Same Cafe to be served in their restaurant.

Looking towards Colfax

Looking towards East High School

We're still deciding what to plant since it's so late in the growing season but I came across this awesome guide today.  Here is the crop calendar provided by Colorado Fresh Markets for Denver:

June 21st

June 25th

More Photo's Coming Soon

The King of Urban Agriculture

This is Will Allen. A man like this has the ability to change the world. His company, Growing Power Inc., provides a great example of how to work smarter instead of harder. He has taken a retail perspective on farming. Use your space wisely. He is growing over 60% more food per acre than the traditional farm, grows year round and uses very little fossil fuel. He's able to do this by creating multiple tiers of growing surface in well managed green houses. Oh yea, and he does this downtown in the city of Milwaukee. Let's all learn a little bit from this man. More of his story to come soon...

For information on Urban Farming in Denver visit:

Denver Urban Gardens - www.dug.org

Feed Denver - Urban Farms & Markets - http://www.feeddenver.com/

Ever heard of aquaculture?

A Score for Community Gardens

Community gardens are a win win for everyone involved. This article was posted on the Denver Urban Gardens(DUG) blog last week:

Let's Move--and Garden!

This past weekend, the National League of Cities hosted the “Congress of Cities” at the Denver Convention Center. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke at the event, presenting praise and a challenge to the city officials in attendance as he represented the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign to combat childhood obesity.

Among other things, Vilsack noted the importance of community gardens in creating healthy communities and setting a foundation for success of the campaign. He encouraged officials in attendance to practice coalition building and map out food deserts in their cities, but also to take note of where community gardens were having successes.

According to the article in Food Safety News, Vilsack also announced that

USDA offices around the county are now providing ground for 700 gardens that this

growing season produced 90,000 pounds of fresh produce. Most went to local food banks.

Here in Denver, DUG’s extensive community of gardeners donate a hefty portion of produce each year to our area food banks, including non-profits like Project Angel Heart, which exists to ensure that the metro area’s very ill receive free, consistent and appropriately nutritious meals.

Another hot topic during the USDA Secretary’s speech was the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that recently passed in Congress. This act, coupled with cities committing to make nutritional food available throughout the school districts, has the potential to really make an impact on what Vilsack sees as a matter of national security.

These girls get moving as they bicycle around the Fairview Harvest Festival. Community gardens are great spaces for both nutrition and exercise.