| |
Holyoke Community Garden Grows With a Diversity
Grant
3/31/2008
Linda
Langelo
Horticulture Program Coordinator
Colorado State University
Extension
Golden Plains Area |
 |
| I have provided this information to assist you
with making informed decisions. If you have questions about this article or
suggestions on making this or other articles better, please click on the
buttons below. |
|
|
|
As the Holyoke Community Garden enters its second season there are
volunteers from Phillips County Arts Council, Centennial Mental Health, Women,
Infants and Children (WIC) and other individuals who have joined. Along with
this new membership, Colorado State University awarded Holyoke Community Garden
with a grant. This diversity grant serves young couples just starting out
together, single parent households with children from ages 5 through 14,
elderly and the disabled from different ethnic backgrounds within Phillips
County.
The community garden is a tool in which the primary focus is
teaching people how to grow their own food successfully. We aim to give people
a skill that can better their lives now and forever. When an individual becomes
skillful at growing each crop and has an understanding of the proper cultural
care needed, only then can the garden produce an optimal amount. Knowing how to
skillfully work with and be aware of weather conditions helps make the garden
successful.
It also helps to be well prepared with the price of fresh
food, which has increased 75% since the summer of 2007 according to Organic
Gardening.
As an individual becomes a more skillful gardener that
knowledge and experience broadens the ability to do more in life. Growing fresh
food builds self-confidence and self-esteem, and yes, even pride in a job
well-done.
When a seed germinates and becomes a tiny plant which pokes
its leaves through the soil, this is a sign of optimism. It is also a sign that
the gardener was a participant in the growth of that plant. It demonstrates
what one can do when one focuses the mind on a goal. And even if the seed did
not germinate the first time, it is human nature to feel responsible for the
failure knowing everything was done correctly. Here, that would teach
perseverance and dedication towards the end result of reaching
goals.
The Holyoke Community Garden aims to continue to bring people
together to work on a common goal feeding each other. This means feeding both
the spirit and the physical body.
During the growing season there will
be six different workshops which will teach the successful growing of fresh
food. The workshops are open to the public for a donation as well as the
membership of the community garden. If someone wishes to attend, please call
Phillips County Extension at 854-3616 as soon as possible. The first workshop
will be coming up in mid-April to late April.
Two other workshops will
teach the nutritional value of fresh foods and how to preserve different foods.
Some of the workshops will provide hands-on training in the garden
itself.
Last, but by no means least, the art of gardening is
incorporated in this mission through the participation of the Phillips County
Arts Council. There are many activities that can demonstrate the beauty of
plants and transform plants into artwork like topiaries, herb gardens or
murals. Gardens also can have a musical nature.
However, Gertrude
Jekyll, an English gardener is a perfect example of how art and gardening can
be blended together. She started her life as an artist, then as a gardener and
later was part of the Arts and Crafts Movement by designing items from plant
materials. Her understanding of color in the garden is still borrowed today by
garden designers and architects. Jekyll had an amazing skill for a woman who
developed a severe myopic or nearsighted condition leaving her almost blind in
later life. Yet she could tell by the sound of rustling leaves, one tree from
another.
In the Holyoke Community Garden we plan to expose people to the
art and craft of gardening. Together we will share the different cultural foods
and open an awareness of why we eat what we eat while learning about another's
culture.
This upcoming spring and summer is growing into a multi-sensory
experience for all involved. Increasing knowledge, self-imagery, fresh air,
colorful vision, nutrition and fiber with physical activity and diverse
cultural experiences could prove to be fun and exciting for everyone right here
in Holyoke. Come and join us! |
Page Created and Maintained by: Perry D. Brewer, Area
Extension Agent (Technology Education/Youth)
7/17/2008 |
|
|
