As I (Carey) write this, the day outside is warming up beautifully. Crocuses fill yards in my neighborhood with daffodils about to blossom. I’m excitedly awaiting the call from our greenhouse crew that they have arrived from Wisconsin to construct our greenhouse, currently sitting in a neighbor’s backyard. This is our last big foreseen infrastructure project, and I am excited it’s happening at last!
Three years ago I started researching what it would take to build a greenhouse in our garden. “Greenhouse dreaming 2023” is the name of my file folder holding ideas. Then on to find a distributor, raising $50,000 for the project from a variety of community groups and individual donations, getting estimates from contractors, finding a second distributor after being ghosted by the first, and finally here we are! About to begin!
I’ve been feeling kind of behind this winter in my administrative duties, but I’m slowly catching up. I’ve been working on the creation of a new program called Grow With the New Me, a partnership with Individual Advocacy Group (IAG). This program, led by our education coordinator Alana Reynolds, will give intellectually-challenged individuals in IAG’s program a chance to work in our accessible garden, taking home any produce they raise.
We’re going into our fifth year of children’s programming, with Eat A Rainbow! and Kids Fare Garden Club. We’ve reduced EAR to one day each week, but lengthened the program to 10 weeks. KFGC will run from May through mid-August like usual.
I’m thankful to Alana (our education coordinator) for helping us out with seedlings and allowing a place to grow our peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants. I’m thankful to all of our volunteers who showed up, even when it’s cold out, to replace all 30 raised beds in our communal garden. Weather cooperating, we hope to top these off with soil and compost soon. I’m thankful to our board members who say “yes!” when I reach out for help.
I’ve slogged through paperwork we missed with the Illinois Attorney General’s office when we applied for our 501c3 last year. I’m checking with personal plot gardeners to see if they’d like to renew their plots while fielding calls for people interested in being on our waiting list. I sent out sponsorship letters to dozens of Springfield businesses in hopes that we can expand and diversify our funding this year. My planting maps and cross referencing are finally finished.
Soon I’ll start planning our Open House and Garden Jamboree. My administrative time is largely hidden from the public face of the garden, but it is oh so important to our garden work flowing smoothly. I like having our programs all set up ahead of time so that when spring is sprung, and we are in the garden with our friends and our plants and seeds, I can be present in our work together.
We invite you to take part in our garden this year. We’re open for volunteers starting Saturdays in April, 9-11. In May we move to our regular volunteer times, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 9-11. If you follow us on facebook, we announce our volunteer times as they happen on good weather days (or try to aim for that!).
If you’re not into gardening, we invite you to join us on Saturdays, which are more community-oriented days. Come on in, have a seat at the picnic tables and hangout. Walk around and see what’s happening in the nooks and crannies. Talk to people. The garden is a Third Space in our community. It’s a place where neighbors can become friends, and where friends can get hooked into what’s happening in our community.
