Growing Community Gardens

What do you get when you combine this empty lot:

...with this pile of lumber?

In the right amounts, and with a great deal of volunteer labor, you get a new community garden! Lumber was delivered two weeks ago to Sunset High School where the geometry and shop students are now cutting, drilling, and routing away to create raised beds for the community garden being installed at the Del Norte Wellness Center this spring. Water lines will be the first improvement made, followed closely by a greenhouse and the first wave of raised beds.

This is the culmination of a great deal of hard work by many community partners and future community gardeners. Community Assistance Network joined the Del Norte Health Care District board and Open Door Community Health Centers in a grant application to The California Endowment and the Tides Foundation to expand the Wellness Center campus in ways that improve community health. The grant was awarded last year and will not only fund the garden, but also a playground, walking paths, and exercise stations for adults.

We may not have water or a single raised bed installed, but we already have ten gardeners signed up for beds in the new garden! There's room for many more, so if you or someone you know needs space to grow some of your own food, please call Angela at 464-7940 ext. 107 to request a Community Garden application.

If you'd like to try growing your own food, but don't know how, we can help with that, too! CAN organizes a Successful Gardening series of classes to teach people how to garden. The first class is coming up on March 19th from 10 to noon, and will be taught by Joe Gillespie. Space is limited, but we have room for a few more students to learn about starting seeds and growing seedlings. You can call Angela at the number above to register for the class.