SAINT PATRICK COMMUNITY GARDEN
PLANTS & VEGETABLES
How often have you been able to pick up fresh vegetables from your local food bank? Probably not often.
This is a crucial need within our current communities. Our food bank's lack of fresh vegetables has highlighted an issue our garden has sought to correct.
Weekly. our community garden supplies our local food bank with fresh garden produce. Organic
vegetables are grown specifically for this need and offer a healthier option to regular food bank canned vegetable choices.
Plant a seed and help those in need...
INTENSIVE GARDENING METHODS
The purpose of an intensively grown garden is to harvest the most produce possible from a given space. More traditional gardens consist of long, single rows of vegetables spaced widely apart.
Much of the garden area is taken by the space between the rows. An intensive garden reduces wasted space to a minimum. The practice of intensive gardening is not just for those with limited garden space; rather, an intensive garden concentrates work efforts to create an ideal plant environment, giving better yields with less labor.
Though its benefits are many, the intensive garden may not be for everyone. Some people enjoy the sight of long, straight rows in their gardens. Others prefer machine cultivation to hand weeding; though there is often less weeding to do in intensive plantings because of fewer pathways and closely spaced plants, the weeding that must be done is usually done by hand or with hand tools. Still other gardeners like to get their gardens planted in a very short period of time and have harvests come in all at once. The intensive ideal is to have something growing in every part of the garden at all times during the growing season.
A good intensive garden requires early, thorough planning to make the best use of time and space in the garden. Interrelationships of plants must be considered before planting, including nutrient needs, shade tolerance, above- and below-ground growth patterns, and preferred growing season. Using the techniques described below, anyone can develop a high- yielding intensive garden.
OUR GARDEN
START YOUR OWN GIVING GARDEN
1. Plant fewer crops (e.g. in a 100 sq ft. garden, plant 2 crops at a time).
Many crops can be grown several times a year—lettuce, green onions, spinach, carrots and cilantro.
2. Connect with the program you are growing for, whether it is a meals program or a food bank. Know your demographics, and the food will be better received.
3. Bring food in before the food bank opens, to give volunteers and time to process your donations.
Did you know? The food bank loves herbs (tied a small amount together with string and distribute).
CANBY HIGH SCHOOL FFA
Saint Patrick Community Garden partners with Canby High School's FFA (Future Farmers of America) each year to provide starts to our garden plots.
Our community garden provides all the starts and seeds needed for gardeners assigned to food bank plots.
For instance, the FFA students work in their high school green houses, with the seeds we provide and a list of plants needed for our upcoming food bank crops.
Student green houses have been a success and supplied a large portion of the produce needed for our local food bank!
