Sharing the love with community gardens

Get your chicken on

Gretchen Anderson has been described as an “Eagle chickenista,” and with good reason. Anderson not only raises backyard chickens, she wrote a book on the subject, “The Backyard Chicken Fight: How Keeping Chickens in Your Yard is Ruffling Feathers Across the Nation.” Anderson is also on the committee that organizes the annual Tour de Coop, a two-day coop tour on Oct. 1 in Eagle and Oct. 2 in Boise.

September is National Chicken Month, and activities are planned to help people in the Valley learn more about this popular hobby. Classes on how to winterize your chickens will be held at the Idaho Botanical Garden and in Hailey. A community education class is also planned in Boise.

“It keeps growing and growing because people want to get closer to their food source,” Anderson says.

When Anderson was growing up in Salt Lake City, her family had hens. She earned allowance money by delivering eggs to the neighbors. Folks with eggs make great neighbors because of the eggs they often share, she says.

She describes chickens as “pets with benefits” because of the eggs they produce. When it comes to the work it requires to raise chickens, it is similar to what it takes to care for a dog.

“Chickens are easy and wonderful,” Anderson says.

Tour de Coop: Self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days, Oct. 1 in Eagle, Oct. 2 in Boise. $10 for family/group. Register to receive the tour map at www.eventbee.com/view/tvfctourdecoop2011. More information at www.boisechickens.com.

Tour community gardens this weekend

The Idaho Foodbank will host a garden tour to showcase some of the Valley’s diverse community gardens.

Organizer Beki Parham says the Valley’s gardens can benefit everyone in the community. “The first annual Community Garden Tour is meant to give the gardens in the Treasure Valley a place to showcase their achievements and stress to the visitors the importance of local, healthy food,” Parham says.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 27 and 28

WHERE: A map is available at the Idaho Foodbank’s website. Go to http://idahofoodbank.org for more information.

COST: The suggested donation is $5. After making an online payment ticket buyers will be able to link to the tour map.

INFORMATION: Email communitygardens@idahofoodbank.org or call 577-2683.

A backyard garden is lovely, and nothing beats the taste of fresh lettuce on a warm summer night. But if a small garden is fabulous, a community garden is bliss. Suddenly you have a network of other gardeners with whom you can share information and ideas. And maybe, just maybe, you can share what you grow.

Local author Gretchen Anderson is working on a book to be titled “Secrets of the Lazy Urban Gardener (SLUG).” She has noticed an increased interest in community gardening lately and believes the benefits extend beyond fresh food.

“It gets people interacting with one another,” Anderson says. “We are so busy with our lives we aren’t outside interacting with our neighbors. This gets us out there.”

Here is a look at three community gardens around the Valley — and some of the secrets of their success.

DOWNTOWN TEACHING FARM

A collection of students, families, neighbors and church members work together on this fixer-upper on the corner of Fort and 12th streets.

Alison Ward, a science teacher at Boise High School, heard the garden was possibly available. It had been a community garden operated by the First United Methodist Church for a couple years, but the person who had been organizing the project needed to step down. Ward and Erik Quissell, who also teaches science at Boise High, worked with the School District to get a five-year lease signed with the Cathedral of the Rockies (the property is owned by the church), and work began in late spring.

The garden has about 100 tomato plants, corn, pumpkins and a variety of beans and potatoes, in addition to other plants. Ward’s 10-year-old daughter, Grace, suggested they have a pizza garden, so one area is filled with future pizza makings such as basil, peppers, onions and wheat.

“I believe kids should know how to grow their own food,” says gardener Kathy Odziemek. “I feel like it’s a social responsibility.”

Odziemek met Ward when they were students at Boise State University (she has a degree in environmental health), and now lives a few blocks from the garden.

On a recent summer night, Susan Carmichael showed up with her own gardening tools to see how she could help. Carmichael had heard the garden was up and running and was eager to get involved.

“It’s like everything is coming together because two teachers from Boise High said, “Yes, we can do this,’” she says. “I think the best training is what the plants are going to teach you. That’s what’s so great about this place. It’s a teaching garden.”

BORAH GARDEN

“It’s a community garden. It just happens to be run by the Borah Neighborhood Association,” says Keith Mitchell, a Borah resident who helps keep in eye on the flourishing garden near the Borah Pool.

The garden sits on city property — that’s where Boise City comes into the picture — and it is the first project of its kind to receive a Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant from the city. Anyone can have a plot here. Gardeners must pay a small fee, and then they are free to make the space their own. There are 39 plots and four raised beds in the garden. Small signs identify the owner for each space: a Girl Scout troop, Borah High School, refugees from Vietnam and Thailand, and families.

People from throughout the Treasure Valley can use the space (the grant requires the garden to be open to everyone, not just folks in the Borah neighborhood), and skill levels run the gamut.

“There’s people who really know what they’re doing and people who are just learning,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell, a retired teacher, doesn’t have a plot of his own. He wants to make sure everyone else has a chance to get a space first. Instead, he is there each day to help manage the property, offer guidance and support and serve as an ambassador for community gardening.

Kids who have never seen food growing have come to the garden to look around. A day camp recently took a tour.

This is the garden’s first growing season. Mitchell and his crew broke ground in March. It was an open field before the garden project took off (years ago it was part of a farm, but eventually it landed in the hands of the city). Mitchell’s neighborhood association approached the city and asked if it could be used as a community garden space. Somehow Mitchell ended up managing the project, and he jokes his wife was just looking for something to keep him busy.

Maria Minicucci, property administrator for the City of Boise’s Park and Recreation Department, has worked with the Borah Neighborhood Association to get the project going. In addition, she advises other groups in the community when they want to know how to start a garden of their own.

“Community gardens are a new thing for us, and we’re all just learning as we go,” she says.

“That’s way cool,” Mitchell says.

TUSCANY GARDEN

The picturesque Tuscany development in Meridian has swimming pools and parks for the residents who live there. The community garden wasn’t part of the original plan, but now it is a feature that brings neighbors together and helps kids learn about gardening.

Some members of the Tuscany community noticed some unused space within the neighborhood and asked the developer if it could be used as a garden space, says Tuscany resident Angela Keskey. The developer agreed to the project, then ran a water line and tilled the property.

“They’ve done an awesome job,” Keskey says.

Neighbors who want a plot in the garden pay $25 for the season. Many plots feature handmade signs identifying the family caring for each space. For Keskey, it was a chance to garden for the first time.

“I’ve never had a garden before,” she says. “We have a salsa garden because I thought that would be easier to do.”

The Keskey family installed a drip system and put it on a timer to ease watering. And, in their first gardening season, they’ve enjoyed six heads of lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and squash.

It has been a teaching opportunity for Keskey and her 3-year-old daughter, but it also gives her a chance to meet neighbors she might not know otherwise.

“It’s women helping women. All generations,” she says.

Chereen Langrill, a graduate of Boise State University, has been a journalist in Idaho for more than 15 years. She covers features, entertainment and other topics about Idaho and Idahoans. Along with her husband, Idaho Statesman sports reporter Chris Langrill, Chereen loves being outdoors and takes advantage of all Idaho has to offer. Chereen spent her summer swimming laps at Lowell Pool in Boise and tried to improve her backhand by taking tennis classes at the Fort Boise Community Center.