What a Difference a Month Makes

It is unbelievable what a difference a month of rain and sunshine makes in the garden.  The whole Pea Patch is green, green, green with sunflowers towering towards the sky.  Amazing!

The G4G garden is thriving amidst it all.
  

And our donation bins are already overflowing, which has our recipients really excited.  They love the vegetables and look forward to our arrival each week.  So thank you!

This month also brought us three new volunteers- Nicole (and fam), Julie, and Roberta.  Hooray!  We could not survive without our volunteers.

Yep, we are now in the thick of it and once again, we are thrilled with how beautifully people come together to support the project and share with their neighbors in need.

If you would like to donate vegetables, you can find our coolers at Buck Recreation Center and the two Littleton Pea Patches.  We can also arrange pick-ups if necessary just send any inquiries to gardenforgood@gmail.com.

Summer has Arrived

Well, it is hard to believe but summer is already here and the G4G garden is nearly in full bloom.  The broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and peas are all ready to harvest.  It may be another few weeks for the rest of the garden to really start producing but it won't be long until we are collecting 10 lb. zucchinis and yummy cucumbers.


Our donation bins will be available starting Friday, July 8th.  They will be located at the two Littleton Pea Patches (Bemis St. and Shepperd and 703 W. Berry Ave.) and Buck Recreation Center.  We will pick-up vegetables every evening around 7PM.  


All vegetables will be delivered to IFCS's food bank and Littleton Housing Authority Residents.  


We thank you in advance for your donations and support.

A Special Thanks to the Littleton Gardening Club

We just wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to the Littleton Gardening Club for selecting G4G as one of their grant recipients.  


We are honored they selected us and grateful for the opportunity to improve and expand G4G's efforts this year.  It was also a great pleasure to attend the Gardening Club's meeting and witness their dedication to gardening and keeping Littleton beautiful.


We are hopeful that this will be the beginning of a mutually supportive relationship.

Spring is here and we are BACK!

 It is hard to believe but spring is here and it is time to get back in the garden.

We at Gardening for Good have already begun to prepare.  We reserved our plot in the Pea Patch, renewed our partnerships with Littleton Housing Authority and Interfaith Community Services, reaffirmed our relationship with O'Toole's Garden Center, and have begun to reach out to our volunteers.  We also just received some exciting news.  G4G's application was chosen as one of the Littleton Gardening Club's annual grant recipients!!!  The grant will allow us to make some exciting new additions to our project.

The launch of the 2011 season will be April 16 11AM-2PM at the Littleton Pea Patch

We will be amending the soil, sculpting the plot and planting a few seeds.  We will also use this day as an opportunity to begin signing up volunteers and solidifying our plans for the upcoming season.  So if you are interested in volunteering or supporting the project this year, feel free to stop by.  If you cannot make it but would like to support G4G, please contact us at gardenforgood@gmail.com.

Thank as always,

The G4G Team

Until Next Spring...

Well, the season has come to an end and what an amazing season it has been.

3,000 LBS OF DONATED VEGETABLES:  That is 6x more than last year.  That is 1.5 tons.  That is an elephant, a mac truck, a whale.  That is an astounding and most generous amount of vegetables!  Thanks to all who donated this year.  You have exceeded all our expectations.

5 G4G COMMUNITY EVENTS: With four cooking and recipe sharing events at LHA senior centers and one end of the year celebration this season, we made some real progress toward our goal of creating a true community of sharing.  It was such a pleasure to share several joyful afternoons with our recipients and one fun day with a number of our generous gardeners.  The opportunity to get to know our neighbors was definitely one of our favorite parts of the season and something we would like to do more of next year.

NUMEROUS PARTNERSHIPS WITH LOCAL LITTLETON BUSINESSES:  I am not sure if we are more astounded by the amount of vegetables donated this year or the incredible support we received from the Littleton business community.  The project, the events, and our success are deeply bound to the generosity of local businesses like O'Toole's Garden Center, Savory Spice Shop, Delizio's Wine Bar and Cafe, Blueberries, Elements, David James Hair Salon, Pat's Bar and Grill, Romano's, Intrigue, and Meryl's Restaurant.  We are also indebted to the Littleton Historical Museum, Bemis Library, and the Buck Recreation Center for their support this year.  Our partnership with Littleton Housing Authority and IFCS was of course essential to the project and finally, our most serendipitous partnering has been with Recipe for Change, a local nonprofit who has kindly offered to take us under their wing.  They have been an incredible support for us this year and we are looking forward to how we may grow together in the future.

So with Season 2 under our belt, we have a great deal to be grateful for and we are.  But we are already looking ahead to next year for new opportunities and surprising successes.

Until then though, THANK YOU!  Enjoy your break from digging in the dirt, have a wonderful holidays, and a cozy winter.  And we hope to see you (or be in touch with you) again in the spring.

With the sincerest thanks,

The Gardening for Good Team

G4G Fall Festival and Celebration

Hi, as we approach the end of the gardening season, we are planning one last celebration.


On Sunday, October 17th, at 12:30PM we are hosting a Fall Festival and Celebration in Sterne Park (at the picnic shelter by the playground).  It is our way of saying thanks to all the gardeners who made this season so successful.  It is also a chance for gardeners and recipients to get together and celebrate what they shared this season.


So if you donated to the project this season or were a recipient, please join us on the 17th.


BRING THE WHOLE FAMILY FOR FOOD, DRINKS, FUN AND GAMES.


We just ask that you RSVP to gardenforgood@gmail.com so there will be enough food and drinks for everyone.


Thanks!

More Fun with Vegetables

2,200+ lbs.!!!!

The Tomatoes have Arrived

Its September and the fall crops are starting to ripen! 

Last week's tomatoes from the G4G garden

That means tomatoes and peppers are now mixed in among the zucchini, cucumbers and squash. The variety of vegetables being donated each week is actually amazing. We have had kale, all kinds of interesting squash, green beans, carrots, onions, hot peppers, green peppers, and an array of tomatoes. We also received a batch of locally grown peaches last week and grapes this week. So we are going to try our hand at juice making.


The collective effort has also been impressive. Besides our gardeners in the Littleton Pea Patches, who wow us every week with their generosity, we have received vegetables from backyard gardeners around Littleton, who have made an extra trip to Bemis Library or the Buck Center just to share their bounty. Also, the gardeners at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Centennial have donated at least 60 pounds of vegetables. With so many people involved, I think I can safely say that Gardening for Good is truly a COMMUNITY project.


And, thanks to everyone's support we donated 400+ lbs. last week and 300+ lbs. this week, putting us real close to our 1 ton goal for the season. Because of these numbers we are now able to donate to all our recipients once a week! Honestly, I cannot get over how successful this year has been and we still have a month to go.

So stay tuned for more updates and for information on our final celebration in October.

475 lbs. Donated in 1 Week!!!

That is not a typo.  We received well over 450 lbs. of vegetables last week.  Amazing!  

If we keep getting amounts even close to this, we will need to begin delivering vegetables 3x per week.

Thank you so much!

We also had our G4G kickoff event at Amity Plaza this week.  We shared samples of a number of simple vegetable recipes with the senior residents at Amity and gave away an amazing amount of vegetables.  We had a great time!!  We will be hosting a similar event this upcoming week at another site.

If you are interested in the recipes you can find them here: Squash and Cuc Recipes.

Also, we would like to give a big thanks to Recipe for Change for providing all the printed recipes.

A Little Garden Humor

Thanks to some forgotten zucchinis, healthy-sized squash, cucumbers, and even a few peppers and tomatoes, G4G donated over 100+ pounds of vegetables this week!

A Bit about Who We Donate To

Well, week 2 was even more successful than the last. We delivered 75 lbs. of vegetables to our neighbors.

LITTLETON GARDENERS YOU ARE AWESOME!

We are delivering these vegetables to members of our community who too often cannot afford fresh produce. 

Each Wednesday, all the vegetables donated between Sunday and Tuesday are picked-up and taken to Interfaith Community Services' food bank. Interfaith has been serving the South Metro Denver community for over 40 years. In addition to their food bank, they offer a wide variety of services including homeless prevention programs, assistance to homebound seniors, and Ready, Set, School!, which outfits low-income children with new clothes, backpacks, and school supplies so they can start their first day of school on the right foot. The mission of Interfaith is to foster the self-sufficiency and respect the dignity of each of their clients. The mission of Interfaith and its motto 'neighbors helping neighbors' is a true representation of what Gardening for Good is all about and we are excited that we can play a small part in their service to the community.

On Mondays, we deliver all donated vegetables to senior and family residents of the Littleton Housing Authority (LHA).  LHA 'seeks to strengthen our community by creating opportunities for diverse housing alternatives'.  The LHA operates three senior housing residences and also offers affordable, quality housing to over 100 families in Littleton.  Each week we deliver vegetables directly to these senior residences and to all the families who have signed up to receive vegetables.  In this way, we hope to reach members of our community who cannot easily travel to Interfaith's food bank or who could use the support but have no need for food bank services.  More importantly, we aim to develop a community of sharing that is more direct, interdependent, and interactive.  To this end, we deliver the vegetables in person each week and plan to host several events to bring volunteers and recipients together.

Yesterday, when delivering vegetables I was told by one recipient to say thanks to all the gardeners who have so kindly shared their bounty.  So again and always THANK YOU!

First Full Week and Wow!

I am so excited.  I just returned from the G4G garden plot with cucumbers, squash, swiss chard, and lemon cucumbers!  I guess we did not have to wait long at all for the other vegetables to arrive.  It is amazing how quickly things are growing and maturing now.  I took a picture of the plot a couple weeks ago (below) and it is unrecognizable - some of our tomato plants are approaching five feet and the cucs, squash, and zucchini have taken over the whole front plot.  It is so fun to watch.

But that is not why I am writing.  I am writing to report on the success of our first full week of donations.  I have to admit I did not expect much until the end of the month or beginning of August so I am blown away.  On Wednesday I delivered about 10 pounds of zucchini and sqaush to Interfaith Community Services' food bank.  Today, I weighed all the vegetables we collected since then and the grand total is 45 lbs.  We will deliver these to Amity Plaza residents (Littleton Senior Housing community) tomorrow.  

That puts us at almost 60 lbs. for our first full week. Amazing.  And I cannot begin to describe the radioactive sized vegetables we have received.  

This just affirms what I already knew - 
Littleton gardeners do not just have green thumbs, they are also amazingly generous.  Thank you!  This project is nothing without your generosity and we cannot begin to convey how appreciative we are.  

Happy gardening and be well.

The G4G Garden the first week of July 2010

First Week's Bounty (7/18/2010)

Vegetable Collections Begin July 9th

It is almost time to start harvesting!  We have already begun to harvest lettuce, spinach, and radishes in the Gardening for Good plot and can barely wait for the other crops.  But wait we will.


In the meantime, we are gearing up for donations.  We have arranged to have bins in several central Littleton locations--

• Bemis Library
• Buck Recreation Center
• Littleton Pea Patches
• Shepherd and Bemis (next to the Center for the Blind)
• Windermere and Stern Parkway (behind the Presbyterian Church)
• 703 W. Berry Avenue

If you are interested in having a bin at your business or church, please contact us.


We will pick-up the outdoor bins every evening and deliver the vegetables to recipients twice a week.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT!

Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions, Radishes - Oh My!

Just wanted to post a few pictures of the garden.

This is the front patch with lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, beets, onions and swiss chard.

This is our side 'mound' plot with future cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins.

And this is our tomato and pepper plot.

I know it does not look like much yet but with all the TLC our volunteers are dedicating to this garden it will be green, green, green in no time.

                                            

May has been a great month.  We received generous donations of heirloom tomato and pepper plants from the Littleton Historical Museum.  We have had a great turnout of volunteers, who have contributed an impressive amount of hard, dirty work.  And, we have made some great and hopefully lasting connections.

I can barely wait for the fruits (er.. vegetables) of our labor.

Stay tuned for updates on the garden, donation sites, and Gardening for Good events.

Garden Preparation

 

The Gardening for Good Pea Patch plot is ready for the season thanks to the hard work of our dedicated volunteers and the creative efforts of Littleton Transitions' students.

Thanks to everyone who helped out these past couple of weeks, the garden is beautiful already.

Also, please note that this Saturday, May 1st (if weather permits) we will have our official 'Planting Day Celebration'.  If you are interested in volunteering in the garden this summer or just learning more about the Gardening for Good project, please join us Saturday.  For directions and details, RSVP to gardenforgood@gmail.com.

In case of rain, we will reschedule for May 8th.

April Announcements

The Gardening for Good season has now begun.

Last week we had our first planning meeting and I want to say thanks to all who attended.  Your energy, ideas and support are so appreciated. Also, thank you to those who shared their thoughts with me by phone and e-mail.  The project is already much improved because of your participation.

So here are the updates from the meeting and the past week's efforts:

• We have secured a 10'X 20' plot in the Pea Patch near the Center for the Blind.
• O'Toole's Garden Center has agreed to provide the project with all the supplies needed for the garden, including soil, compost, fertilizer and seeds.  A huge thank you to O'Toole's for this generous offer.
• A link has been added to the site for collecting vegetable recipes.  So if you have a vegetable recipe you would like to share please click the link above and send it our way.
• And, most importantly, we have begun to develop a core group of participants and supporters to ensure the success of the project this season.

We will also be working on getting the Gardening for Good plot prepared for a 'Planting Celebration' May 1st so if anyone is interested in helping with these efforts, please contact us at gardenforgood@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for upcoming events and news, including where you can donate vegetables this summer.

About Gardening for Good

Begun last summer, Gardening for Good is a community project dedicated to providing fresh vegetables from local gardens to our neighbors in need.