Ground-breaking for the 1650 square foot garden began in March of 2009 with help from a  Community Foundation of Mendocino County grant and support from The Gardens Project of NCO. Thanks to tremendous community support, the irrigation system, fencing, plant starts, compost and labor were all donated. On August 11th of the garden's first season, 55 lbs. of veggies were harvested.

We have a growing team of garden volunteers now, with more folks joining in all the time.  People see that it's really happening and that it's fun, and they want to be part of it too. Everyone is invited.  This garden belongs to the community;  it's our community's main COMMUNITY garden because it  belongs to the whole community, as does all of Plowshares.  Everyone knows that when they need food, Plowshares is there.

The Plowshares Community Dining Room serves approximately 5000 meals a month to the hungry, including Meals-on-Wheels and free hot lunch and dinner five days a week. 

• Want to see more garden photos, click here.
• Interested in volunteering? Contact Rhonda at 462-8582.
• To read about this garden on our blog click here

Visit the Garden

Plowshares Community Garden is located at 1346 S. State Street in Ukiah, CA.

View Plowshares Community Garden in a larger map.

Current Happenings in the Garden

Garden Leadership Training:
The Garden Project http://www.gardensproject.org/ has begun a year long training of garden coordinators, and Plowshares is well represented. Five of us attended the first meeting and were warmly welcomed by representatives from many gardens in the area. Together we will learn leadership, outreach, coordinating work days, honoring volunteers, building community, accessing resources, and increasing food production!  The goal is that through our efforts and networking we will help to build a safety net of food security for our community.

Donations:
 Julie Price of Solid Waste Systems just sent us  20 yards of  rich, black compost made from leaves and  green waste from all the homes around Ukiah. It's symbolic of Plowshares being nurtured so richly by the whole  community. 
 Last week North American Organics donated five yards of compost also, beautiful, rich compost! The fig trees from Mendocino College are settling into their new home.  The starts from Lovin' Blooms are growing steadily.  And Rainbow Ag brings us straw and hay as mulch. The community supports our work!
 
 Kitchen survey:
 Our friends at the garden of the City of 1000 Buddhas expressed garden leadership well, with "THE KITCHEN IS BOSS".  We have asked our kitchen what we should grow and there seems to be general agreement that salad ingredients are top priority, onions and garlic and cooking herbs are very high priority, and, listed in order by number of votes received are: zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, beets, squash, chard, broccoli, cucumbers, kale, bok choy, leeks, and collards. 
We're bound to grow!