Get Involved: Local Resources
Get Involved
A starting point for getting involved in the food gardening community within Clark County.
- Clark County Community Grown
communitygrown.org/
Community oriented food and gardening information focused on Clark County.
info@communitygrown.org - Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation
www.cityofvancouver.us/parks-recreation/facilities_locations/commgardens.htm
Marshall Community Ctr, 1009 East McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98663
(360) 487-7100 - Clark County 78th St. Heritage Farm
www.clark.wa.gov/78wsu/
1919 NE 78th St, Vancouver, WA
Eighty community garden spaces - Clark County Home Grown Gardens
Raised bed garden plots located throughout the county available for income qualifying individuals. Mentors welcome.
Contact: Kris Alexander, familygardening@gmail.com, (360) 397-6118, ext. 5654. - Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Garden
www.nps.gov/fova/planyourvisit/garden.htm
612 East Reserve St, Vancouver, WA 98661
The interpretive garden is planted to resemble the historic gardens planted at the original Fort Vancouver in the 1840's, with organic produce distributed to Share House and the Fort kitchen.
Contact: Bill DeBerry, Bill_DeBerry@nps.gov, (360) 816-6247. - One Life Community Garden
www.welcometoonelife.com/garden.html
2007 E. 12th St, Vancouver, WA 98661
One Life maintains a garden on donated land to provide fresh, organic produce for clients in emergency food boxes.
Contact: Andrea Walker, andrea@welcometoonelife.com, (360) 904-1273. - Camas Roots
www.camasroots.org/
"The garden is a site for service learning that offers participants (students, youth offenders and others) the opportunity to contribute to their community, develop a strong work ethic and increase self esteem." - Hamllik Community Garden
4500 Addy St, Washougal, WA 98671
Twenty-four community garden plots available (April to March).
Contact: Suzanne Bachelder, sbachelder@ci.washougal.wa.us, (360) 835-2662. - Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington Community Gardens
www.mrsc.org/Subjects/Parks/comgarden.aspx
Resources for Community Gardening
Organization |
Resource |
Contact |
| Washington State University Master Gardeners | Volunteers Education |
clark.wsu.edu/volunteer/mg 360-397-6060 ext. 7718 gordonc@wsu.edu |
| Clark County Master Gardener Foundation | Foundation Volunteers Plant Sales |
clark.wsu.edu/volunteer/mg/foundation.html 360-576-6030, ext.17 |
| Community Grown | Local Information | http://www.communitygrown.org/ |
| Clark County Food and Farm Blog | Local Information | http://clarkfoodfarm.blogspot.com/ |
| Fort Vancouver High School | Plant Sales | 5700 East 18th St Vancouver, WA 98661 |
| Lewis & Clark High School | Plant Sales | 2901 General Anderson Ave Vancouver, WA 98661 |
| Hudson's Bay High School | Plant Sales | 1601 East McLoughlin Blvd Vancouver, WA 98663 |
| Urban Farm School | Food and Gardening Classes | urbanfarmschool.com PO Box 393, Ridgefield, WA 98642 360-852-3728 urbanfarmschool@gmail.com |
| Further Home Gardening | Teaching and installation of Square Foot Gardens | triciap@iinet.com 360-695-8072 |
| Clark College Corporate and Continuing Education | Food and Gardening Classes | www.clark.edu/corporate_continuing_education |
| Craigslist | Used Gardening Supplies | portland.craigslist.org/grd |
| American Community Gardening Association | General Resources | www.communitygarden.org |
In the news
March - May, 2011
The People's Garden Online Training Sessions
The USDA People’s Garden Initiative and Cooperative Extension Service are happy to announce the Healthy Gardening Training Series. These sessions will cover a wide variety of horticultural and garden related topics taught by Extension Educators across the country. These sessions are part of the coursework for our Executive Master Gardener Program here at Headquarters. We are glad to be able to offer these sessions via webinar for those who would like to learn more about sustainable gardening practices.
There is no charge for registration and all sessions are open to USDA employees and the public. Please follow your agency’s protocol for training approval. You may register for one or all of the sessions depending on your interests.
The Cooperative Extension System is the nation’s largest and oldest network of universities. Visit www.eXtension.org for a sample the type of extension education going on across the country. The USDA People’s Garden Initiative promotes growing healthy food, people and communities. It encourages USDA employees and communities to plant gardens because we believe the simple act of planting a garden can make real and lasting change to improve food access and healthy lifestyles.
Registration is open now at
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/broadcasts/emg/
The presentations from 3/29-4/19 are all 60 minutes each, except for the ones on 4/26 and 5/3 are 30 minutes each. All times are eastern.
TOPIC |
PRESENTER |
ORGANIZATION |
DATE |
TIME |
Garden Botany |
Rosie Lerner |
Purdue |
Tuesday, March 29 |
12 noon to 1:00 pm ET |
Soil & Fertility in the Garden |
Scott Guiser |
Penn State |
Tuesday, April 5 |
12 noon to 1:00 pm ET |
Introduction to Garden IPM |
Elizabeth Brown |
Texas A&M |
Tuesday, April 12 |
12 noon to 1:00 pm ET |
Garden Insects |
Blake Layton |
Mississippi State |
Tuesday, April 19 |
12 noon to 1:00 pm ET |
Types of Public Gardens & Their Value |
Rebecca Finneran |
Michigan State |
Tuesday, April 26 |
12 noon to 12:30 pm ET |
Gardening & The Hungry |
Gary Oppenheimer |
AmpleHarvest |
Tuesday, April 26 |
12:30 pm to 1:00 pm ET |
Garden Pesticide Use & Environmental Stewardship |
Kerry Hoffman-Richards |
Penn State |
Tuesday, May 3 |
12 noon to 12:30 pm ET |
Finding Answers to Gardening Questions |
Linda Chalker-Scott |
Washington State |
Tuesday, May 3 |
12:30 pm to 1:00 pm ET |
February 17, 2011
Have your fruit trees pruned for FREE!
Join a FREE fruit tree-pruning workshop!Register your trees to be part of Urban Abundance’s “Harvesting the Urban Orchard” program by 2/25/2011 and be entered into a lottery to have your trees pruned by the City of Vancouver’s Urban Forestry Dept.
Want to learn how to prune your fruit trees? Join us Thursday 3/3/2011 4:30 for a pruning workshop with Jessica Antoine, City of Vancouver Urban Forestry staff, as she guides us through late Winter fruit tree pruning techniques. What is the Harvest the Urban Orchard program? Watch our Youtube video HERE
Thousands of pounds of fruit and nuts fall to the ground each year creating messes in yards across Vancouver, yet many in our community go hungry or lack access to fresh healthy foods each day. Harvesting our Urban Orchard program offers tools for the community to register trees to be harvested and volunteers to bring in the harvest. Ways to participate: Register your trees HERE
Register as an Urban Abundance volunteer and come out as a Harvest Volunteer HERE
Become a Tree Scout. Download outreach forms from the Urban Abundance website to give to friends, neighbors and family HERE OR sign up for the Tree Scout crew to canvass your neighborhood by emailing info@myurbanabundance.org.
The challenge: We currently have 13 sites registered to be harvested in Vancouver. We need your support to help increase the number of trees registered in the Urban Orchard. The 1st harvest year we brought in 1,500 pounds of fruit, by the 3rd year Portland brought in 15,000 pounds of fruit! That’s a lot of fresh fruit brought into the emergency food system. We have a lot of very established fruit trees in Vancouver that are no longer harvested, lets get them registered to be part of Vancouvers Urban Orchard and bring in at least 20,000 pounds of fresh fruit to the emergency food system by our 3rd year.
For more information contact: info@myurbanabundance.org 360.771.1296
january 5, 2011
Growing Grocers Mentor Program seeking mentors for 2011
July 12, 2010
Wal-Mart grant will fund plot in Marrion neighborhood
A $30,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation's Washington State Giving Program and one half-acre of donated land from Shorty's greenhouse will allow 50 or more Marrion neighborhood families to grow their own food. Plus, it will help launch or expand four more Vancouver community garden sites in Fruit Valley and along the Fourth Plain corridor.
June 23, 2010
Vancouver citizen Esther "Kitty" Ham honored with garden dedication
The Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Department dedicated the community gardens at
Marshall Community Park on Wednesday, June 23, to Vancouver citizen Esther "Kitty" Ham.
Ham was instrumental in starting the community garden program in the Vancouver area.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Esther and her husband, Alan, shared a deep concern for the
elderly and the underprivileged in our community. The Hams established the Senior Citizen
Sharecropper gardens on their Lewis River farm between Battle Ground and La Center,
providing the land and gardening help to senior citizens.
When they moved to Vancouver, Esther spent months trying to find land to
carry on the program there, finally getting some school land for that purpose. Eventually she
was able to work with the Parks Department to start the vision for gardens in parks and on city land.
After living in Clark County for 60 years, Ham died in 2004 at the age of 84.
Members of her family, including her husband, gathered to view the new raised
beds and the basalt rock that bears the dedication inscription in Esther's honor.
A kiosk will be installed to tell Ham’s story as well as provide gardening
information. Marshall Community Gardens are at 1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd., adjacent to the
Marshall Community Center.
Announcement
in the Columbian (halfway down page, under Central Vancouver)
Read more about Esther Kitty Ham
Projects of Interest
December 9, 2010
Help The Garden at River HomeLink win!
Hello friends,
The Garden at River HomeLink is participating in a contest in which we could
win a garden (makeover), a new Farm to School program or gardening supplies for one year.
You can help us by going to this website, http://root4kids.com/get-involved/ registering and using River HomeLink as the school name. Please pass this on to your
families and friends as well. Our successful school garden program has been operating for 6
years with virtually no budget, so this could really help us improve the site and improve the
learning for our students.
For more information regarding River HomeLink, please visit our
website http://www.bgsd.k12.wa.us/riv/
--Kris (Alexander) Potter
Clark County Homegrown Gardens, 695-5627