A huge thank you to Charlie Nardozzi for collaborating and co-facilitating with us on the entire workshop series, offering his expertise, positive energy, and commitment to the work of community gardens.  Thank you also to Joseph Keifer of Food Works at Two Rivers Center for touring the state with us this summer, contributing more than 20 years of experience and insight to our activities and discussions.  Thank you to Highfields Center for Composting for providing expert staff and resources during the series, Betsy Johnson for presenting and sharing resources, and UVM Extension Master Gardeners (EMG), for promoting our work and involving EMG interns in the workshops. We are grateful for our partnership with NOFA-VT that enabled us to launch the series as a part of our Community and School Garden Track at the NOFA-VT winter conference.

For each workshop we partnered with local and regional partners to ensure outreach and help coordinate logistics locally.  Please click here for full list.  

The Grow It! series was made possible with generous support from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Windham Foundation, Ben & Jerry's Foundation, New England Grassroots Environment  Fund, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. 

Your November tip: Take the time to send out personalized thank yous to all of the individuals, groups, institutions, and businesses that made your garden possible this season.  As you well know, these volunteers, gardeners, advocates, and donors are what center your garden in the community, what makes the work of your garden fresh and relevant, and what often keeps your garden afloat.  Include in your thank you pictures from the season, any updates or developments they may be unaware of, and a brief note on how their contribution benefited the garden. Simple gestures can go a long way, such as a hand written note signed or written by the gardeners.  Consider hand delivering your note with jar of pickles from your garden's harvest (food can also go a long way in saying "thank you").  If possible, also find a way to publicly thank them, in the local newspaper, on your Facebook page, or in-person at a community gathering, so the broader community understands all that it takes to make your garden possible.  Additionally, this recognition lets contributors know that they are a part of something bigger that they want to continue to support and see grow.

David Littlefield is a Burlington College senior studying film production, the student body president and leader of the college's new garden club. He graduated this fall from VCGN's Community Teaching Garden program.  

Burlington College is a place where a wide range of student interests in life and academia unite. From film or photography to tranpersonal psychology, woodworking, creative writing, and expressive arts, the range of studies here are vast. Adding to this, Burlington College is considering in their long term plans to develop a Sustainable or Urban Agriculture program. To get students aware and excited about gardening, I made it my goal to begin a garden there as soon as possible. With my freshly learned gardening skills as a result of Vermont Community Garden Network's Community Teaching Garden, I did just that. My hope is that the garden will incorporate students of all disciplines to create a garden site that is an enjoyable and stimulating gathering place for all. 

I discovered the Vermont Community Garden Network this past Spring as I was searching for community members and organizations to interview for a research paper that was centered around the creation of a garden club at Burlington College. By the end of my interview with Jess Hyman (Director of VCGN), I not only had some excellent quotes, but also an internship position documenting the program and creating promotional videos for the Network. In exchange for my video work, I received free tuition for the Community Teaching Garden class, as well as free access to their Grow It! Workshops.

The experience I had participating in the Community Teaching Garden class was much more profound and far-reaching than I had anticipated. Prior to this class, I had very minimal exposure to gardening. Now, at the end of the season, I feel confident in how to plant seeds and starts, which plants require trellis or support, how to gauge soil condition, and which pests and diseases to look out for. We also learned how to preserve using lacto-fermentation, medicinal herb-usage, how to make pickles, and how to prepare a garden bed for spring without tilling (layer-composting). Aside from the skills and tactile aspects of gardening, I also received a lesson in community building. Through this class I met a new group of people from different ages and backgrounds. By working together, sharing foods during potlucks, and meeting up outside of class, I have forged good bonds of friendship. Also, I was able to bring some of my vegetables home to friends who were delighted to have fresh food. One friend crafted a beautiful sweet potato pie, and another baked zucchini bread using vegetables from my garden. Since this class, I have felt more deeply connected to the people and earth here in Burlington.

Layer composting on the site of the new Burlington College garden.

Looking down the road, a personal goal is to help make Vermont food secure and food independent. Burlington College can play an effective role modeling the benefits of gardening and showing the community ways in which it can fit into and improve all of our lives as individuals and as a community at large. The Vermont Community Gardening Network is already taking great strides in helping to support garden infrastructure across the state. I feel lucky to have become a part of this healing organization and I eagerly look forward to learning more about gardening and how it can improve the overall health of individuals and communities in Vermont.