MISSOULA — Anyone looking for a way to help out and get outside at the same time, May 18, 2024, is Garden City Harvest's Great Day of Gardening.
"I feel like it's a real privilege that I get to garden here," Long-time volunteer and community gardener, Robin Etingen-Ayers told MTN. "I love getting my hands dirty. Oh, it's therapeutic. It's meditative.”
Garden City Harvest has a bunch of community gardens around Missoula.
Community Garden Director, Emily Kern-Swaffar shared that the program allows people to rent spots for $40 tp $70 (plus a $25 deposit) per year. Then, people can grow anything they want with Garden City's support.
"We provide the tools, the lands, we provide water manure,” explained Kern-Swaffar. “Some people have small raspberry patches, herbs, flowers, as for vegetables, there's definitely a ton of tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash, lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, charred.”
However, for 11 gardens, there are only three full-time staff members. So, extra hands in the dirt mean a lot for Kern-Swaffar, “Oh my gosh, volunteers are so helpful because it takes a lot to manage these gardens."
To get ready for summer growing, Garden City is having its biggest gardening day of the year on May 18, and they need volunteer help.
“Volunteers and the gardeners that show up will be able to spend most of their time on planting and then mulching and just making the space beautiful,” detailed Kern-Swaffar.
Etingen-Ayers said that group gardening offers her a chance to not only grow food with others but to grow her skills.
“It's as fun to garden with other people because everyone has their own tricks and methods. And I've learned so much from other gardeners.”
To sign up for the Great Day of Gardening click here.
