Community Gardens: Year in Review 2005

Field trips

• 14 field trips conducted
• 338 children ages 3-13 attended the field trips
• Themes include gardening, butterflies, dinosaurs, worms, pond and pond life, bugs, kites and wind.
• Stations include physical activity, making healthy snacks, science, and nature

Expert Gardener Classes

• 1 class with 18 graduates

Gardener meetings

• 11 gardener meetings with an average attendance of 12 gardeners

Education classes

• 11 education classes conducted
• Topics discussed at meetings and education classes were Herbs, aphids, Heirloom plants, sweet potatoes, strawberries, organic sources for fertilizer, brassica, Organic pesticides, growing in August, growing and braiding onions, Tomatoes, Eggplants and Peppers.

Volunteer Groups

• 11 volunteer groups from Rotary, ESE, 3M day of caring, Expert Gardeners, Dell 3 times, Camp Goodwater service day, Milburn Church youth, Project Hope, Native plant society of Texas (npsot), Dennis Allmen’s group, Claire Smith-Cistern.

Heritage Improvements

• Nature trail connecting local elementary school to gardens
• Four faucets for watering at the production garden
• Two hand washing stations
• Memorial trees dressed out with mulch and engraved name plates mounted on limestone rocks
• Tiller
• Theme Gardens planted
• Increased size of production garden

Planting, nurturing, harvesting, and donating produce

• 1644 Lbs. of produce donated

Happy Kitchen classes

• 3 Georgetown class series taught averaging 12 students per class
• 1 Liberty Hill class series taught averaging 17-18 students per class
• 100% of the class participants made at least one positive change in the cooking habits at home

Planting the Happy Kitchen Garden (5 A Day Demonstration Garden)

Attended Farmer's Market

• Georgetown 6 times
• Round Rock 2 times
• Taylor 1 time

Attended a Church of Christ Health Fair, 9/10/05

Attended St Helen's Woman's group presentation, 11/1/05, approximately 25 attendees

The Details:

Spring

Spring has definitely sprung in Williamson County Community Gardens! This season was extremely busy with planting, field trips, building more garden beds and the first Expert Gardener and Happy Kitchen/La Cocina classes.

The production garden and raised garden beds at Heritage Community Gardens in Georgetown were planted to full capacity with expectations to produce 100’s of pounds of produce on a monthly basis this summer. Forty plus community members and the Community Health Promotion Division at the Health District have adopted these gardens to provide underserved community members access to fresh fruits and vegetables year round through local food banks such as the Caring Place in Georgetown. At least 10% of all produce grown at Heritage Community Gardens must be given back to the community through local food banks. For more information please email .

The production garden at Heritage Community Gardens finally has 4 faucets so more than one gardener can water at a time. In July, several gardeners donated their time, money, materials and expertise to install a 370 ft water line from the top of the hill to the production garden. This has been a wonderful addition. Thank you to everyone involved.

In addition to Heritage Community Gardens, Cedar Park has been blessed with a community garden. Located at Milburn Park, this community garden offers 38 raised garden beds built by Community Health Promotion staff and Cedar Park Parks and Recreation Department. As of May 2005, all raised plots were adopted. At least 10% of all produce grown here will also be donated to a local food pantry. For more information regarding Milburn Park Community Garden please contact the Cedar Park Parks and Recreation Department at 258-4121 ext. 6830

March kicked off our field trips at Heritage with local schools, Head Starts and day cares. A total of eight field trips were conducted with 252 children pre-K to 8 years old attending. A wide variety of hands on activities were conducted in 2 hours revolving around various themes such as bug, kites and wind, dinosaurs, worms, and ponds and pond life. Activities focused on nutrition, physical activity, science and nature. For more information on field trips please call 943-1497.

This spring also brought Williamson County its first graduating class of Expert Gardeners. All 18 members have been trained in botany, lawn care, organics, soil, mulch and compost, growing organic vegetables and herbs, insects and disease diagnosis, growing perennials and natives and successful gardening in the Central Texas area. To graduate, the expert gardeners had to pass a certification examination and be willing to volunteer their time and talents to the community in the local community gardens as well as but not limited too speaking engagements, plant clinics and workshops through the WCCHD Community Health Promotion Division. Please contact Natalie Vreeland with WCCHD at 930-4387 to get in touch with the expert gardeners. The next Expert Gardener course will be in January 2006.

The first Happy Kitchens/LaCocina Alegre classes were taught this spring with 90% of the class participants reporting a positive change in their shopping habits, 80% improved their cooking habits, 85% improved their eating habits after attending the classes. A total of 16 participants completed the first six week series of cooking and food education lessons designed by the Sustainable Food Bank of Austin. Our vision is to bring these lessons to Williamson County families with young children through local food banks such as the Georgetown Caring Place. Attendees receive fresh organic produce to take home each week allowing them to try the recipe at home with their families risk free. These classes offer a fun and relaxed setting to cook, talk and learn together. For more information please contact Liz Keith at 930-4387.

June 4th, National Trail Day was celebrated in Williamson County. The Georgetown Rotary Clubs had a ground breaking ceremony at Heritage Community Gardens dedicating the Rotary Centennial Nature Trail which connects the backside of Annie Purl Elementary to Heritage Community Gardens. This nature trail will provide access for local residents, school children and staff to Heritage Gardens in a safe, fun, and beautiful atmosphere. Once at the gardens community members can be involved in a variety of activities that promote good nutrition and physical activity for the entire family. Please come see us at 2100 Hutto Road Georgetown, TX 78628.

In addition to all the planting, watering, growing, harvesting, field trips, and dedications the Heritage Community Gardens received 60+ volunteer hours from Project Hope. Approximately 30 teenagers volunteered their time for 4 weeks to help weed, water, harvest, mulch, and paint and assemble toad houses and toad stools. These were placed along the Rotary Nature Trail in addition to several park benches which were made by a local volunteer.

© 2004 Williamson County & Cities Health District