‘Grow & Give’ from your garden this summer

 By Amy Lentz, Colorado State University Extension - Boulder County

Are you growing a garden in your backyard or have a few containers of tomatoes on your patio? Do you know what you will do with any extra veggies you might grow this summer? Colorado State University Extension has a solution for your overabundant garden and can help you make the most out of your harvest – it’s called Grow & Give! Through the Grow & Give program, you can donate those extra zucchinis, tomatoes and beans to a local food pantry or a neighbor in need and make a positive impact on others.

Master Gardeners work in the ‘Food Pantry Garden’ at the Boulder County Fairgrounds Community Garden which grows solely for donations through the Grow & Give program. Photo: Amy Lentz

The Grow & Give program was created in the spring of 2020 as ‘a modern victory garden project’ to help Coloradans learn to grow food, share their harvest, and keep it in their local communities. Back then, you might remember people flocking to garden centers across the state to empty the shelves and buy up all the seed packets to start their new hobby of backyard gardening. But growing food isn’t necessarily a cake walk and CSU Extension saw the need to fill in the gaps. They saw a need to teach people how to garden from starting with seeds to harvesting and storage. In addition, Grow & Give collected information from local donations centers across the state and created an interactive map to help participants get their extra produce to donations centers.

In its pilot year, the goal of the program was to provide an outlet for learning about home food gardening while also making a difference in local communities during the global pandemic. In 2020, Grow & Give registered over 500 home and community gardens across the state and saw over 1,800 donations for a total of 47,000+ pounds of nutritious, fresh home-grown produce. But it didn’t stop as the pandemic has slowed…in fact, it’s grown! Last year, Grow & Give registered an additional 200 gardens and donations topped 55,000 pounds. This summer is no different as we continue to deal with food insecurity in our communities due to supply chain disruptions, inflation, and inequities in community services. Grow & Give continues to be there to help.

An example of one of my Grow & Give donations from 2021.
Photo: Amy Lentz

One of the unique aspects of the Grow & Give program is that it not only links you to produce donation sites, but it also teaches you how to grow fruits and vegetables specifically in Colorado’s unique climate through resources on its website. From the plains to the mountains, there are a vast number of articles, fact sheets and videos from raised bed gardening to how to grow tomatoes in buckets. You can learn about kohlrabi, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, strawberries, herbs and practically any other fruit or vegetable you can grow in Colorado. Not sure how to get started or deal with pests? This is also covered in the resources on the Grow & Give website – growandgivecolorado.org.

An example of the resources offered on the Grow & Give website - vegetables in containers! 

Are you ready to join the collective effort across the state to help with food insecurity at a hyper local level through the Grow & Give program? It’s easy! All you have to do is register your backyard garden or community garden plot…then when you have extra produce, report your donation through the website. You’ll get a bi-weekly emailed newsletter with gardening tips and it’s totally free to join. To learn more, contact your county’s CSU Extension office or visit growandgivecolorado.org.

CSU Extension is Here to Help!

 

by Amy Lentz, CSU Horticulture Extension Agent, Weld County

CSU Extension has a TON of resources to help you with a variety of needs when it comes to anything ‘horticulture’ and sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming to know where to look. I thought it would be a nice touch to our CO-Horts Blog series to have an instructional article on how to utilize these many resources that your CSU Extension experts have created for you! You can be sure that the information you get from CSU Extension is based on sound research and good practices, even if it's in a fun style like the current blog site you are visiting.

So, here you go…this is a summary of the different types of resources you might want to check out for more information on anything you can think of about gardening, landscaping, lawns, trees, flowers, vegetables, fruit and so much more! Links are embedded in each summary below in case you want to visit these sites and bookmark them for future use:

Resources from CSU’s Planttalk website are brief articles to introduce you to a wide range of gardening
topics. The subject material is focused on the beginner and offers other resources for further researching. The Planttalk website is also home to a full library of short gardening tutorial videos for those that prefer visual learning. Find these resources, along with a form to ask your question directly to Extension experts, on the Planttalk website.

 

CSU Fact Sheets are scientifically written and detailed articles that often include growing and treatment recommendations for everything from insect issues to recommended trees and shrub lists. Fact Sheets are peer reviewed and written by CSU Extension specialists, agents and other experts. These are great if you have an issue for which you need research-based advice. Fact Sheets can be found on the main CSU Extension Website under Publications.

 

CMG GardenNotes are very detailed chapter-style resources that are great for those seeking textbook style learning. These are utilized during training for Master Gardener volunteers and others at our annual Green School. You can find out more about Green School and access the complete set of CMG GardenNotes on the Colorado Master Gardener website.

 

Grow & Give is a program recently created by CSU Extension that teaches you how to grow fruits and vegetables and connects you with local donation centers to donate your excess bounty. Visit the vast resources on the Grow & Give website.

 

The CO-Horts Gardening and Colorado Mountain Gardener blog postings are more casual and fun resources where agents and Master Gardeners across Colorado write about random topics surrounding horticulture. You can subscribe to these blogs to receive the articles right into your email inbox or you can just read online. 

The CO-Horts blog website also offers a list of recorded Gardening Webinars that have been taught across the state by CSU Extension agents.  

 

Finally, probably the best part about CSU Extension is that you can contact your Local CSU Extension Office and Colorado Master Gardener Volunteers to get personalized help with your gardening questions! CSU Extension offices also cover many other topics that are useful to Coloradoans.

Feeling Thankful in 2020

 Posted by: Alison O'Connor, Larimer County Extension

Don't get me wrong--it's been a hard year. There have been many challenges, new stresses, obstacles, and uncertainty. "Be flexible" has been a good mantra. Despite the bad, there's also been a lot of good. So let's take a moment to reflect on the positives...

People started gardening.

We were stuck at home, looking outside at our landscapes, so people picked up a shovel and got busy. This meant record-breaking seed sales.  Baker Creek, a supplier of heirloom seeds, reported over 10,000 orders on one day in late March. In some cases, this meant packing and shipping delays. It also meant that some seeds were completely sold out. For those of us in horticulture, the news was exciting! New gardeners! (And truth be told, it also provided us Extension folk a bit of job security, since we knew these new gardeners would have questions.) The record seed sales also extended to nurseries and greenhouses, who struggled to keep plants in stock due to demand. 

Shoppers at Fort Collins Nursery (Fort Collins, Colo.) (photo courtesy of The Coloradoan)

Several garden centers reported higher-than-normal Mother's Day sales, with customers swarming to buy hanging baskets, annuals, and summer-blooming bulbs. Signs were posted that said, "New shipments are on their way!" Garden centers responded with curbside pick-up and online ordering. For months, one of the nurseries in Fort Collins had long lines lining the frontage road in front of their store the moment they opened each day. A warm welcome to all of our new gardeners!

Gardeners gave back to their community.

The CSU Extension Grow & Give project provided resources for people to grow produce with the intent of donating some of it back to their communities. Wildly successful (and award-winning!), this project was adopted by 37 Colorado counties. Gardeners donated more than 46,000 pounds of fruits and veggies to local food banks and pantries, as well as churches, community groups, and neighbors. 

Farmers' markets were successful

Nationally, farmers' markets were deemed as "essential business", meaning that they were allowed to operate as per health department regulations. The Larimer County Farmers' Market, operated by CSU Extension in Larimer County, scrambled to open their doors in May. Despite numerous regulations and mandates, the market operated successfully for 24 weeks. It even had the highest sales day in its 45-year history in August. Masked customers lined up obediently, six feet apart, to purchase their favorites from dedicated vendors. Hand sanitizer, wash stations, gloves, and masks all became part of the market culture. 

Styria Bakery II at the Larimer County Farmers' Market (photo courtesy of Karen Collins)

Selling plants to get a home

I recently read this heart-warming story that brought tears to my eyes and provided the hope that we're so desperate for. Aaron Moreno, a California first grader whose family was homeless, sold plants to help his family get an apartment. His mom gave him her last $12, which he invested in succulents and sold them for a profit of $4. He took that money and reinvested it into buying more plants. Setting up his table outside a shed, where the family was living, people bought the plants--in droves. Aaron's Garden raised enough money (with the help of GoFundMe) to move his family out of the shed into an apartment. Aaron now has money in the bank and a place to do homework. While he may not stay in horticulture (he wants to be a judge), it's clear that gardening changed his family's life. 

Aaron Moreno of Aaron's Garden (photo courtesy of @aaronsgarden on Instagram)

Yep. It's been a tough year. But there's still so much good. And if tough times have proven anything before, it's that we'll get through this. Together. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Grow & Give: Community Garden Makes a Big Impact

 By Amy Lentz, CSU - Weld County Horticulture Agent

 

With the unique situation of the global pandemic that began back in March, many CSU Extension staff shifted gears to create the Grow & Give^TM program. This program took the idea of the victory garden and modernized it for 2020 by creating a comprehensive, statewide horticulture initiative focused on helping people grow a food garden and donate the produce locally to address food insecurity. The program registered almost 600 gardens across 37 counties in Colorado, with participation from individuals, Master Gardeners and community-run gardens. 

During the Grow & Give^TM program’s pilot year, there have been over 1600 reported donations across the state, totaling more than 40,000 pounds of produce! In addition to all of the amazing donations that were spurred by the program, the organizing team created several new resources for participants to help them with their ‘growing and giving’ questions and needs. To learn more about the Grow & Give^TM program, visit growandgivecolorado.org.  

One particular garden in my home county deserves some serious recognition for their past and present involvement in growing food for donations and their participation in this year's Grow & Give^TM program. The Treasure Island Demonstration Garden donated over 5,580 pounds of produce over the past few months, all donated locally! Although this wasn't their first year growing food for donation (they've been doing that for over 10 years), it was the first year they had to do it while dealing with restrictions due to the pandemic.

 

Treasure Island Demonstration Garden, conveniently located along the Poudre River Trail in Windsor, is visited by thousands of pedestrians and cyclists each year as they pass by the long garden area. The garden started 13 years ago as a side project for a small group of Weld County Colorado Master Gardeners. In their first year, they grew lots of pumpkins to get the garden up and running. Since then, the garden has grown to be an attractive and educational landmark of the town.

Today, Treasure Island is home to several garden sections including a very large vegetable garden, kitchen garden, dahlia garden, ornamental grass garden, memorial rose garden, a crevice garden and several mixed perennial gardens. 

The vegetable garden has really been thriving this year, with an abundance of crops such as cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, onions, and tomatoes and peppers of all kinds! All of the fresh produce is donated to the Windsor Food Pantry for distribution throughout the area to those in need.

We are so proud of Windsor's volunteers at the Treasure Island Demonstration Garden and their continued efforts to help their local community! The Treasure Island Demonstration Garden is located at 1560 7th St. in Windsor, Colorado.