Garden for Life
An acre of land on Powwow Road has been turned into a beautiful garden that provides fresh produce for the community and our food pantry. See our progress in year one as we turned a barren patch of land into a bountiful garden. We're looking forward to growing even more produce in year two. 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.
Ready for Raspberries
Thanks to one of our wonderful volunteers! Bryce Andrews of Thunder Road Farm brought his tractor and rototiller to prep the soil for 250 raspberry canes that we’ll be planting on Saturday. He also spread wood chips donated by Mission Valley Power on the garden pathway. This saved us many hours of manual labor! We’re looking forward to adding a raspberry patch to our beautiful Garden for Life.
Ready for Veggies
We've been working on weeding he garden and getting the soil prepped for planting. We'll be planting seeds and seedlings the last week of May. We're also making organic compost. We're looking forward to seeing row upon row of organic vegetables.
Planting
Plants are going in! Thanks to Harlequin Produce for their generous donation of starter plants, and to Bonnie White's environmental science / EAGLES club students at Arlee High School for planting and growing starters for us. With a little sunshine, water and regular tending from our amazing volunteers, these little green sprouts will soon become a flourishing garden.
Pollinator Boxes and Kids' Water Tables
Our garden now has a kids’ section and pollinator boxes, thanks to a donation of materials and volunteer labor from South San Francisco-based biotechnology company Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.
Genentech donated four galvanized garden boxes, kids’ water tables, and kid-sized garden gloves, buckets, and tools. On June 13th, fifteen volunteers from Genentech and seven from the University of Montana L.S. Skaggs Institute for Health Innovation assembled the garden boxes that will be planted with pollinators.
The Garden for Life is a family-friendly project that gives families a healthy, fun summer activity to enjoy together, for people of all ages. Having a kid-friendly area enables us to have an impact on multiple generations and pass down traditions and culture along with gardening skills in keeping with our mission of supporting food sovereignty in the Arlee community.
August Harvests
Thanks to our amazing volunteers, the garden is coming along beautifully! In July we harvested lettuce, radishes and bok choy, and now the rest of the garden is producing cabbage, cucumbers, tomatillos and zucchini, and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Late August and earlier September will be the prime harvest season with lots of fresh veggies for our food pantry and local food security and food sovereignty partners.
Garlic Harvest
Thanks to the kids in Bonnie White's environmental science / EAGLES club students at Arlee High School, we have a big crop of garlic. Last year's class planted the garlic in May, and this year's class harvested it in September. Garlic is not only delicious, but has numerous health benefits. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and can boost your immune system, lower blood pressure and help keep your heart and arteries healthy.
Final Harvests
Our garden produced over 2,100 pounds of fresh organic produce this year! Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, onions, cabbage, kale, beets, carrots, and more. The veggies were distributed through our food pantry and shared with our volunteers and our partners throughout the area. We also offered food preservation classes to save the fresh goodness for use all year round.
