How does your garden grow?
by Alicia Nieves
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
… Very well, thank you.
In the shadow of Mt. Shasta, the McCloud Grange, in partnership with the local elementary school, has developed a community garden, now in its fourth year of production. Students are invited to participate & learn how to grow a variety of vegetables including: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, and beans.
Do other Granges have gardens as well? The answer is a resounding Yes! Whether it be fruits and vegetables or a flower garden, Granges are bringing something to the locals - a sense of community. Here are a few of those gardens.
Brookside School’s farm program, under the direction of Antonia Partridge, is working in conjunction with fellow Grangers Tiffany & Cyndee Logan and the Little Lake Grange youth. The goals of the program are to create an outdoor classroom with real world learning; to improve the health of the area by distribution of the resulting foods to local schools; and to train the next generation of farmers. The farm promotes subsistence, small farming, and sustainability. The farm is off the grid electrically (using solar power), and ½ of their water comes from a rain catching system.
Antonia says, “It’s a wonderful experience for our Grange youth, learning to grow the food they eat.”
Ellie and Miranda from Little Lake.Brookside Farm has an interactive children’s garden, as well as fruit and vegetable gardens over the 1.2 acres that used to be a baseball field. The Children’s Garden is an interactive garden geared towards visual and tactile learning. Students from the nearby high school can use their PE class time to work the farm. The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program provides the fruits and vegetables of the farm in weekly basket form. For details contact Antonia at (707) 272 1395 or email at apartridge@ncoinc.org.
Little Lake has helped make an important addition to the program - livestock! Chickens were introduced in July. The community is pulling together to build a chicken coop.
The Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange has an organic permaculture garden.
President Damian Parr says, “The garden serves as a wonderful community center.”
The garden is a bio-diverse ½ acre of mixed fruit orchards, annual vegetables, flowers, divided by native hedgerow. With a large oak tree in the center, and a recently acquired pavilion with outdoor kitchen. It is truly a place where the community can gather.
The garden hosts after school youth activities, and workshops for composting (a county program), apple tasting, grafting, rare fruit grower meet-ups and a harvest festival in October. They also host internships for UC Santa Cruz students.
Not all Grange gardens are vegetable gardens, though. The Pleasant Valley Grange has a memorial garden. It contains a variety of flowering plants, planted to provide blooms on a year-round schedule (excepting winter). This display includes butterfly bushes and a spectacular torch lily plant, in bloom this month. The garden contains a bench, walkways, and wandering vines through the flowers. Grangers Kathy & Jim Stimson tend the garden.
Kathy says, “It is a place to go and meditate and enjoy the flowers,” as well as to remember Grangers that have passed.
Two Granges have come together to collaborate on a project in Rio Linda. The project will be designed by the Sacramento Vegetarian Grange on land provided by the Rio Linda Grange. Their aim is to create a sustainable permaculture garden that will grow vegetables and fruits.
Permaculture is a method of farming that incorporates sustainable land use design, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. Their plans include utilizing vermiculture (worms) techniques and solar power.
They hope to involve local schools in development and care of the gardens and someday host popular events such as “Vegfest”. Currently, they are seeking grants to start the project. Let’s wish them luck!
In February, a permaculture workshop was held at the newly re-organized Eastlake Grange. During it, sheet mulch gardens were made. Shortly thereafter, Eastlake invited middle school children to plant it. They currently are growing small plants, such as beans, in pots with the mulch.
Flowers in Pleasant Valley.Eastlake will be providing demonstrations on perma blitz gardening (tiny sustainable gardens). These workshops are about how to build small gardens in suburban areas with few resources.
Trina Johnson says, “It will be good to teach people about the old skills. After we teach them to grow fruits and vegetables, we can teach them about canning and drying.”
Trina is the President of the new Scotts Valley Grange, whose members are planning a permaculture garden. The garden will use swathes of plants to redirect water, and will grow vegetables and fruits.
They are working on getting grants from sources such as PG&E. In their own backyard, they have 3 acres of land and the trailhead for the old Glen-Eden stage coach route that winds all the way to the coast.
In conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, the Lake County Horseman’s Association, and the Sierra Club, the Grange will clean up the trail head. A native herb garden will be planted, giving many examples of native plants and herbs.
It’s refreshing to see that more Grangers are taking the time to renew their interests in agriculture with these gardens.
We’re going back to our roots.