Hormone- and antibiotic-free manure

 I know some of you already have gardens at home. You're not reading this blog because you're waiting for our garden to open -- you're reading it because you love gardening and want to share the love! Knowing that, I think some of you will be interested in Colorado Springs Utility's manure fundraiser for Project COPE. It's a great initiative by CSU and Ranch Foods Direct, bringing you high quality manure and helping to keep families in need warm this winter.

Check out this link to the project to find out more.

Moving deck wood this Saturday!

We'll be moving deck wood for the garden beds this Saturday. We need a few extra hands, so please let me know if you can help. We'll need volunteers at the home where we're collecting the wood (about a mile from the school) to load wood and we'll need more volunteers at the school to unload the wood.

If you can help, please email me (Hillary) at foothillsgarden@gmail.com. Tell me how many of you will be there and whether you'd prefer morning or afternoon. I'll get back to everyone by Thursday evening to let you know what time and where to meet.

Oh, and anyone with a truck or a big SUV (full sized Suburban, Yukon, or Expedition) is welcome to help transport the wood. The more hands and vehicles, the faster we'll get done. Kids are welcome (and encouraged) to help!

Trailer, anyone?

We've got a big load of deck wood to move this weekend and we need help! Do you have a pickup truck and/or a trailer you'd be willing to drive for us? We'll supply the hands to load and unload the wood, but we need a pickup or two (or three!) to transport it all.

The boards are mostly 12' long 2x6 boards and all the hardware has already been removed, so there will be nothing sharp to scratch your vehicle.

If you can help us out, shoot me (Hillary) an email at foothillsgarden@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Digging in for Fall!

Everyone I run into these days asks me, "What is going on with the garden? I haven't seen any progress or heard about any volunteer days!"

I know, I know. We hit a few speed bumps, but we haven't stopped working. There were issues with land that we had to get permission to use, the fence that needed to be re-bid, district employees who were so busy with important indoor projects that our outdoor project had to be put on hold. All kinds of things have come up, but please know that the garden has not been abandoned.

You may not see it, but we continue to move forward.

Here is our plan for the next nine months. Before the first frost, we will

1. Have the volleyball court timbers removed and level the area where the garden will go.
2. Install the fence around the entire perimeter of the planned garden area.
3. Install the plumbing to the garden.

We will let the garden area sit over the winter as we work behind the scenes collecting wood for the raised beds (psst...we're still looking for used deck wood!), gathering kid-sized tools, creating garden curriculum, and planning what to plant in the spring.

At some point before, during, or shortly after spring break (the timing depends mostly on the weather), we will have a volunteer day or two to build the raised garden beds and roll out landscape fabric. Shortly after that, we'll fill the beds with organic garden soil and lay crushed gravel in the garden paths.

And then...and then, we'll plant!

Between now and planting time, we will need volunteers to help us out and we will continue to use this space to let you know about what we need and how you can help.

Thanks for your continued support!

School garden as part of food education

Organizations like the Jamie Oliver Foundation would like to see formal food education happening in schools all over the world. We are proud to say that the Foothills Learning Garden will contribute to the goal of improving food education. If you have read our formal proposal, you'll notice that the garden will be used to teach a variety of standards-based lessons, much more than food education alone. What cannot be denied is that a food garden teaches food education, whether or not that is a goal of the garden. We are glad to be making a small contribution to the improved health of future generations.

by FoodRevolution.

Whole Kids Foundation grants $2000 to the Foothills Learning Garden

The Whole Kids Foundation, whose mission is to improve children's nutrition and wellness with the goal of ending the childhood obesity epidemic, has granted $2000 toward the construction of the new Foothills Learning Garden. The Whole Kids grant application was turned in at the end of December and we were notified about our success in early May.

We are thankful that the Whole Kids Foundation and Whole Foods Market believe in the importance of supporting community projects that improve wellness in children and adults, and we are especially thankful that the Whole Kids Foundation saw the potential impact of our garden and chose to support us financially. Thank you to Whole Kids and to Whole Foods for your generous support!

Walkathon raises $4100 for the Learning Garden

The annual Foothills Walkathon, which took place in beautiful sunny weather on Friday, May 4th, raised over $4100 for the Foothills Learning Garden. Students gathered donations from friends, neighbors, and family members to contribute to building our garden. With lively music playing in the background, students spent two hours walking the field and tracking their laps.

Thanks to the PTO volunteers, teachers, staff, and students whose hard work made this year's Walkathon a success! And a huge thanks to the generous Foothills PTO for supporting the Learning Garden.

$16K and counting!

When the idea of starting a garden at Foothills came up eight months ago, it was nothing but an idea. Eventually it became a proposal. Parents and neighbors were enthusiastically supportive of it, our administration was behind it, our PTO was excited about it.

Then came the grant applications and then some fundraising. I had no idea what I was doing, really, just muddling my way through something I knew that our community and our school wanted, and trying to do it as efficiently as possible.

We are starting to see the results of some of that labor and our community is still supportive of this project. Here is where we stand today:

• At this point in our fundraising, we have approximately $16,000 raised, either pledged and coming soon or already sitting in the garden account. More posts will follow with information on where our funding has come from.
• We have approval from the city to build the garden (after some re-drawing of district and city responsibilities for the land where the garden will go). 
• We have piles of reclaimed lumber waiting to be find a new life as garden beds (we still need more decking, though). 
• We have a boy scout who would like to take on the process of building and filling the raised beds for his eagle project. 
• We have a fencing company who is ready to construct our fence.

Things are moving along. You may walk by that patch of bare land every day and wonder whether anything is actually happening, but I can assure you, we are moving.

My personal goal for this summer is to get the fence installed (approximately $7,000). I would like to have firm bids from plumbing contractors to nail down an exact price for plumbing the garden (we are expecting it to come in between $8,000 and $11,000, but are waiting on detailed requirements from the school district). I would like the school and community garden beds to be built and, if there is enough money and if we have the materials, I would like the perimeter beds to be built, too. The cost for this is expected to come in under $3,000 for soil and screws to put the beds together. We are collecting wood for the beds for free -- it will all be reclaimed lumber.

We are probably not ready (financially speaking) to plumb the garden this year, so we will have to figure out a creative temporary solution for watering the garden this fall. But, we are standing on very solid financial ground to continue fundraising and applying for grants and, if we keep moving at this pace, there should be enough money to plumb the garden next spring.

Keep checking back on the blog and expect to hear about July build days. Then, please mark your calendars and help us make this plan a reality!

Garden Birthday Parties

Collecting donations in lieu of gifts at a birthday party is a growing trend among kids today. Why not encourage your child to have a garden party and collect donations for the garden? Friends could bring something from our wish list or cash. And just think...no new toys with a million pieces to put away after the party is over, just a contribution to getting kids outside and into the garden.

In our family, my children get a choice for their birthday parties every year: invite as many friends as you want and ask them bring donations for something that is important to you or invite a few friends who are free to bring gifts.

Kids at Foothills are excited about the garden. Plant this seed in your child's head and let him choose!

Fundraising success!

Thanks to all who participated in the Grant Farms fundraiser, we've added $1227.46 to our garden fund. We brought in 16 memberships and Grant Farms generously gave us 10% of the total cost of those memberships.

Here's to local organizations giving back to their communities! Thanks, Grant Farms!

Grant Farms Fundraiser ends this week!

Just a friendly reminder...if you are interested in receiving weekly organic veggies (26 weeks), fruit (22 weeks), cheese, eggs, and/or bread from Grant Family Farms, now is the time to order!  Order forms are available at the Foothills Elementary School office. Completed order forms and checks made payable to Grant Farms are due at Foothills Elementary, 825 Allegheny Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80919, by April 27th. A percentage of your purchase will benefit the Foothills Learning Garden and Outdoor Classroom.

Grant Farms has almost 175 pickup locations throughout Colorado, so there is most likely one near you.  The delivery day/time will be announced in May, but all deliveries will take place Monday through Friday.  The Grant Farms website explains everything they have to offer along with the available pickup locations.

For family, friends, and garden supporters who live outside of Colorado Springs, you may register online. Please contact Hillary Dickman (hillary[dot]dickman[at]gmail[dot]com), the garden coordinator, for details before completing your registration.

Psst...for more about this fundraiser, see our original post here.

It doesn't grow on trees...

If money grew on trees, gardeners would be rolling in cash, right?

But, it doesn't. And we're not.

A few people have asked me how they can contribute to the garden fundraising effort. Here are a few ways you can help.

1. Write a check. Yes, you can make a financial contribution to the garden! Write a check to "Foothills Elementary School" with "garden" in the memo line and drop the check off at the school office or send it to the school (Foothills Elementary School, 825 Allegheny Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80919) and your contribution will be put to work.

2. Buy a veggie/fruit/egg/bread/mushroom/flower share from Grant Family Farms CSA. More on that fundraiser here.

3. Contribute to the Foothills Walk-a-Thon when our students start knocking on doors in late April or early May.

We expect the garden to cost upwards of $25,000 ($11K for the plumbing and $7K for the fence are the two major expenses) but with in-kind contributions, that cost could be significantly reduced. So, if you run a fencing or plumbing company and could do work for free or at cost, we'd love to talk. If you have access to dirt or amendments, let us know. If you want to give something from our wishlist as a gift to the school, we'll accept.

As far as our current fundraising goes, we've raised just over $8,000 so far. $5K from D20, $1500 from the Foothills PTO, and about $1600 from Chipotle. The PTO has also generously offered us the proceeds from the annual Walk-a-Thon, which will take place this May and typically raises over $3,000.

We're making great progress, but if you'd like to help us get there faster, now you know how to help! And, if you would like a copy of the budget, I'd be happy to send you one. Just email Hillary at foothillsgarden@gmail.com.

The results are in!

Thank you, Foothills community, for your participation in our fundraising night at Chipotle and thank you, Chipotle, for partnering with us!

And the final total is...$1651.45!

Totally worth the wait in line, right? What a great evening of sustainable food and community building. Thanks again for joining us and supporting your Foothills Garden.

"Eat for Change" at Chipotle tonight!

Tonight is Eat for Change night at Chipotle on North Nevada. Dine at Chipotle between 4-8pm, mention the "garden fundraiser," and half the proceeds from your meal will benefit the Foothills Learning Garden. Hope to see you there!

Where is the garden going?

This is definitely the garden's most frequently asked question. I've posted an aerial photo below with the garden superimposed over the top so that you can see exactly where we plan to put it. We hope to have the fence installed in May, plumbing in June, and be building beds by July. Bed-building will require a few volunteer workdays, so stay tuned if you'd like to help. We'll need all the help we can get!

Water will have to come from near the red "A" bubble and be buried all the way to the garden.

Here is a rendering of the garden design. We hope to have three frost-proof water hydrants installed on the long edge of the garden so that there is plenty of water for everyone.

First grant approval! But . . .

Many, many grants have been applied for in the process of planning this garden, but the first one to be approved is a $5,000 garden grant from our school district.

Can I get a fist bump or a hooray or something? And a big shout out to Academy District 20 for providing a forward-thinking grant opportunity.

This is big news for us and will facilitate the beginning stages of construction in our garden as well as additional funding from other sources.

But, yes, there is always a "but," there is one condition.

In order to get the grant money, we need to make some changes at Foothills to offset the amount of water that will be used in the garden. Ideally those changes would be cheap or free changes to make. We have a few ideas for reducing water usage but we'd like to hear yours. If you (or your Foothills students) have ideas for how to reduce water usage at Foothills, leave your ideas in the comments!

Grant Farms Fundraiser

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Grant Family Farms is offering us an opportunity to earn money for the Foothills Learning Garden through the farm’s popular CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.

A CSA program is where people buy and eat certified organic food that is grown at a local farm using sustainable farming practices. When you become a shareholder in the Grant Farms CSA program, you receive a weekly delivery of fresh, seasonal, organic food. Depending on what you decide is right for you and your family, you may receive vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese, mushrooms, and/or pasture-raised eggs. Members in the CSA program pledge to share in the benefits and challenges of local, organic food production from Grant Farms and other farms in the state of Colorado. Through CSA programs like the one offered by Grant Farms, members enjoy eating well and feeling connected to the land where their food is grown. 

Benefits to you and your family include:

·      Locally grown, fresh, organic produce and food products delivered weekly (June 11^th - December 3^rd)

·      Supporting local farm families and the local economy

·      Supporting sustainable, organic farming practices

·      Opportunities to try new and nutrient-dense vegetables that you may not otherwise pick up at the grocery store

·      The most beautiful, tastiest, and healthiest eggs you’ll ever eat (unless you have your own hens)

·      Weekly e-newsletters from the farm with recipes, preserving tips and stories from the farm

·      Meeting neighbors and community members who are also interested in health and good food

·      Access to farm events – Spring Farm Tour, Fall Harvestival, and many others!

How does it work?

You choose which shares you think your family would benefit from most and you choose a convenient local pick up location. Your pre-packed crates of food will be delivered to the pick up location of your choice once a week for 26 weeks from June through December (fruit shares are an exception – the fruit season is only 22 weeks).  For example, for my family of four, we purchase a medium veggie share, a single fruit share and a single egg share. We generally finish all of the fruit before our next delivery but sometimes have difficulty finishing all of our vegetables so we preserve our leftovers or share them with friends. You do not get to pick and choose what comes in your box; your box is filled with a variety of produce that the farm is harvesting on the morning when your box is packed. For more information about what is included, please see the Grant Farms website.

How much does it cost?

The cost depends on the size of the shares you choose. All costs are listed on the Grant Farms website. While the cost must be paid up front for the purpose of this fundraiser, I would recommend that you consider what the cost is when divided by the number of weeks for which you are receiving food. When I did this, I realized that the overall cost was about the same as what I was spending on produce at the grocery store, yet through the CSA I receive higher quality produce than what I generally find at our grocery stores. In addition, during the CSA season I tend to spend significantly less on groceries because I am at the grocery store less frequently and make fewer unplanned purchases.

In addition to purchasing shares for individual families, members are welcome to split shares among multiple families. Many members choose to do this, with two families splitting one medium or large veggie share, a double fruit share, and a single or double egg share. Some families alternate weeks picking up their shares and others split each weekly share. Splitting a share between two families is a good way try the program without being overwhelmed by produce during your first year as a member.

How will the school garden benefit from this fundraiser?

Grant Family Farms has generously offered to give Foothills between 5% and 15% of the total cost of shares purchased by Foothills families and friends through this fundraiser. The percentage they give us depends on how many memberships are purchased through the fundraiser.

How do I purchase a CSA share?

Simply choose your desired shares and submit a completed registration form (available at the Foothills office) and payment (check or credit card) to the Foothills office. Checks should be made out to Grant Family Farms. Once payment is submitted to the farm, your information will be entered into the database and a confirmation email will be sent to you. Email is the farm’s main form of communication, so please give them an address you check regularly. If you have purchased shares from Grant Farms in the past, you may purchase your share this year through Foothills and Grant Farms will honor it as part of the fundraiser. For more information, visit the Grant Farms website or contact our local Grant Farms CSA Representative, Megan Andreozzi, at megan@grantfarms.com or 719.433.6325.

Also, feel free to contact me (Hillary at foothillsgarden@gmail.com) if you would like to know more about our experience with Grant Farms. We are both CSA members and have been site hosts for several years. We are happy to help you figure out how to work the CSA program into your busy life. 

All registrations and payments must be turned in to the Foothills office before the end of April.

FYI: Grant Farms will determine its pickup days in May after their routes have been determined. The website has Saturday listed as the pickup day, but that is just a placeholder. The pickup day will be a weekday.

Donations

As the garden begins to gain momentum, we will need donations of materials, tools, seeds, and plants. Can you contribute something? Here is what we need:

• Reclaimed wood. We need old decking and 4x4 posts from fences. Are you tearing down your fence (or maybe cleaning it up after the wind tore it down for you)? Or ripping out your deck and building a new one? If so, please bring your used (and nail- or screw-free) wood to Foothills to be stored until we can use it. We are looking for 4x4 posts and 2x6 or 2x8 deck wood. Unfortunately, we cannot accept pressure-treated wood to go in the beds.
• Books! Do you value fresh food, gardening, and reading? You might be the perfect person to donate some award-winning children's books to the garden. Actually, the books would end up in our school library or in the classrooms, but would be used to generate enthusiasm for gardening. Here is a link to a list of award-winning books that you might consider purchasing and dropping off at Foothills.
• Tools. We need hand shovels, pointed shovels, flat shovels, hoes, rakes...you name it. If it is used in a garden, we need it.
• Gloves. We need kid-sized gloves, and lots of them. We would like to gather about 40 pairs of kid-sized gloves. Maybe you will see them on sale or maybe you have a gift for getting things for free from retailers.
• Hoses. We need 2 75-ft hoses to attach to the three spigots in the garden.
• Hose nozzles. We need 2 adjustable spray nozzles to go on our hoses.
• Straw bales. Do you have straw bales? Do you know someone who does? We will need a few to use in composting.
• Perennials. Do you have perennials in your garden that need to be divided? If so, we'd love to take the extras off your hands.
• Trees. We would like to incorporate fruit and/or shade trees into the north end of the garden. If you have access to trees that would work well in this spot in our garden, please let us know!
• Seeds. Preferably (but not exclusively) organic seeds. Maybe you save seeds from year to year and could share some of your favorites. Or maybe you could order a few packets when you order your seeds for the year. Or, maybe you could talk to a representative of a seed company and persuade them to donate packets to this great cause.
• Seedlings. Do you start your own seedlings in the winter and then transplant them to your garden in the spring? We could use some. When you plan your seedlings next year, consider growing a few extra for our garden.

As our needs change, so will this post. Consider anything you see listed here to be a current need. If you can contribute one of these items, please contact the garden coordinator at foothillsgarden@gmail.com. Organizations who make significant contributions will be recognized here on the blog (see our list of sponsors to the right) as well as in the garden.

Chipotle Fundraiser night

Join us at Chipotle on North Nevada for our first Foothills Learning Garden fundraiser! 50% of the sales we bring in will go to the Learning Garden. Either show them a copy of this blog post or a copy of the flyer that will come home with your student or just tell them that you are there to support the Foothills Garden.

The fundraiser will go from 4pm-8pm on Tuesday, March 13th.

 

Psst...we raised $1651.45. Way to go, Colorado Springs! And thanks, Chipotle!