Dine at Salsa Brava on Tuesday, May 12th

Join us on May 12th for lunch or dinner at the Rockrimmon Salsa Brava and support the garden at Foothills Elementary School! Please remember to mention Foothills Elementary to your server in order to receive credit. Thanks to Salsa Brava for supporting our school and community garden!

Plots sold out for 2015

Our 22 community plots sold quickly this year, with the last one going the day after our kickoff event. We will keep a waitlist running, so if you're interested in getting a plot this year (if someone backs out) or next year (if any of our current gardeners give up their plot), please send an email with the subject "waitlist" to foothillsgarden(at)gmail.com.

Anyone interested in a plot may also want to contact some of the other local gardens: Woodmen Roberts Elementary, Rockrimmon Elementary, and Eagleview Middle School may have plots available.

It has been inspiring to see the interest in our garden grow this year!

One plot left!

Our garden kickoff event last night was a great success, but we've still got one plot left. If you'd like to lease the last available plot for the 2015 growing season, send an email to foothillsgarden(at)gmail.com and we will get you set up!

Plots available starting this Wednesday!

Don't forget that if you're new to the garden and you'd like a plot, your best bet for getting one will be at our kickoff event this Wednesday, March 4th at the Rockrimmon Public Library. We'll be there from 6:30-8:00pm. You are welcome to drop in and get signed up for your plot!

Rental fees for the 2015 season remain the same: $70. This fee includes your plot and your water for the season. All gardeners are expected to oversee a school plot as well (as an "overseer," you are a back up in case the plot isn't being watered/weeded/harvested sufficiently). We will assign both your personal plot and your school plot on Wednesday when you sign up.

In addition to signing up for a plot, you'll be able to meet the directors of Go West Camps. Go West will have campers working in our school garden this summer. We thought you might like a chance to meet the directors and find out more about their program in the garden.

See you Wednesday!

Plots available for the 2015 season!

A few people have already started asking...how can I get a plot for the 2015 season?

Here's what you need to know.

Rental fees for the 2015 season remain the same: $70. This fee includes your plot and your water for the season.

We will begin accepting applications from new gardeners at our garden kickoff event at the Rockrimmon Library on Wednesday, March 4th from 6:30pm-8:00pm. This is not a formal meeting, but rather an opportunity for new gardeners to secure a plot for the 2015 season and ask questions about the garden. A few returning gardeners and committee members will be there to answer questions.

The lease agreement is available online only this year. We will have a few computers at the kickoff event so that you can fill out the agreement right then and there. At the event we will be able to accept payment by check.

Once the event is over, if we have any plots remaining we will post a link to the online lease agreement in order to fill the empty plots.

2014 gardeners in good standing with the garden have first dibs on plots -- their lease agreements must be received by March 1st in order to secure a plot again for the 2015 season.

If you have questions, please send us an email at foothillsgarden@gmail.com.

Have you seen our peace flags at the garden?

International Day of Peace

September 21 is the International Day of Peace. Every year, Foothills students create an art installation to share with our community to inspire peaceful living. In past years we have fashioned Pinwheels for Peace, Whirligigs for World Peace, and this year our artists made Peace Flags. They are displayed on the Foothills Learning Garden fence since the silk flags were first dyed with plants that were grown there. It is our hope that as the threads from the flags unravel, they bring a message of love, peace, and happiness wherever they land!

A disappointing event

Late at night on August 30/September 1st, the Foothills Learning Garden was vandalized. Ten pumpkins were stolen off the vines and smashed in the amphitheater near the garden. A few garden tools were also taken from the garden and scattered on the playing field next to the school.

The pumpkins that were stolen and destroyed were slated to be used in a garden fundraiser on October 3rd and in our classrooms for activities like seed counting, weighing, and measuring. If you are the parent of a teen in our neighborhood, we would appreciate it if you could bring up this topic with your child in hopes of either finding out who did it (so that they can reimburse the garden for the pumpkins they stole) or, at least, reminding them that such behavior is rude, unkind, immature, and unacceptable in our community.

While we will be changing the combinations on the locks to the garden, we know that a 6 foot fence is not enough to keep out a determined vandal. We appreciate your help keeping an eye on the garden and reporting any suspicious activity to us at foothillsgarden(at)gmail.com.

For now, we have removed the remaining ripe pumpkins for safekeeping, but we'd like to be able to leave them in the garden in the future...there is nothing more fun for a kindergartener than discovering an orange pumpkin on the vine. That is the essence of why we created the garden. Unfortunately, the vandals have taken away that joy for this season.

Thank you for your continued support of the Foothills Learning Garden.