Arlee Garden
An acre of land on Powwow Road is being turned into a beautiful garden that will provide fresh produce for the community and our food pantry. What should we call our garden? It needs a name, and we'd love to hear your ideas. Email foodsovereignty@arleecdc.org or call 546-5633 with your suggestions. Funding for the garden is provided by No Kid Hungry Share Our Strength, the Gianforte Family Foundation, and the O.P. & W.E. Edwards Foundation.
From Barren to Bountiful
In early April, it was just a patch of land with old overgrown vegetation. Follow the progress as the area gets cleaned up and becomes a flourishing garden. This project includes classes in gardening skills and leadership skills taught by Farmer Fred Billings. Sign up today – email foodsovereignty@arleecdc.org or call 546-5633.
Class Schedule
Classes meet Fridays, 9 to 11 AM at the Arlee Community Center on Powwow Road. The first hour will be a presentation by Fred Billings, followed by a hands-on lesson in a variety of gardening skills. See our class schedule for the full list of dates and topics.
Clean-up Day
Thanks to everyone who came out on Earth Day to help prepare the garden site. We had a good turnout and lots of families brought their kids to get them involved in this community project. We got rid of the overgrowth and the knapweed and we're ready for the next step - delivering garden soil.
Garden Soil is Here
The garden soil is here and we're getting closer to planting fruits and veggies. Next steps are putting up fencing to keep animals out and deciding what to plant. The garden will have 55 rows and we'd like a family or individual to plant and care for each row. Would you like to be a part of this project? Sign up today – email foodsovereignty@arleecdc.org or call 546-5633.
Week One
We learned about the living soil and made compost heaps at the garden site. We are still in need of more compost materials: chicken manure; brown matter including leaves and straw; and green matter including grass clippings or hay with no weed spray or pesticides.
Week Two
The first plants are going in! We planted 216 red cabbage, 216 green cabbage, and 72 cilantro plants. We learned more about compost and the environment needed for healthy plants. Next project is making stakes to mark our family rows.
