2025 Rose Roots Garden Kick Off

Welcome gardeners and friends to another season gardening with Rose Roots! It was wonderful to see many of you at the Feb 22 Open House Registration at the Five Parks Depot. With both new and returning friends, community gardening offers the opportunity to grow local organic produce, learn from each other, and grow community through shared time in the outdoors. We have a few plots still open, so let your family and friends know and reach out if you know someone who would like to garden with us this season.

We recognize that since the founding of Rose Roots in 2012 in a grassroots neighborhood partnership with the City of Arvada with Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) helping manage operations, many have made HUGE contributions to the success of this productive space. For that, we are forever grateful.

Rose Roots Open House Registration Feb 22, 2025

Our 2025 Rose Roots Leadership Team is working diligently to plan community engagement opportunities including workshops, mentoring, work parties, and social events. In years past, our BBQ potlucks with live music have been among our best attended events, so you can expect more on the schedule!

Please stay tuned at our monthly newsletter Rose Root Zone, on social media at Facebook and Instagram, and on our Calendar for updates. We will also have bulletins at the garden to share updates, and our Evites allow us to plan for the total number of attendees, so it is much appreciated when you RSVP 48 hours before the event. This garden is run by 100% volunteers in partnership with the Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) so its success is dependent upon you to help maintain this special space.

How to be a 5 Star Community Gardener

• Fulfill your Service Hours: 12 hours (full plots) or 6 hours (half and raised plots) and Log them Here before Oct 31. Service Hours can be fulfilled by attending All Gardener Monthly Meetings the Second Tuesday of each Month at 6 pm at the garden, work parties, weeding in community spaces, and serving in leadership roles. Weeding the edges around your plot counts as service hours!

• Learn the basics of composting, as we can make our own "black gold" if everyone pitches in!

• Share your Ideas for improving our space at our Feedback Form Here.

• Check out our 2024 Annual Report below and offer ideas for our upcoming season.

  
  

Rose Roots Composting Basic Steps

 1) Cut piles into smaller pieces

2) mow to make smaller pieces

3) put in compost bin

4) spray with water,

5) turn pile periodically.

Note: for extra Kudos, don't leave sunflowers, cornstalks, and large root balls which can't be easily broken down. Please shake out root balls, and take large stalks home.

Prepping Your Plot for the Season

It's time to get your seeds in, the ones who thrive after the last frost more or less. Experienced Rose Roots gardeners Jim Richards and Patty Sacks are planting cool season vegetables such as leafy greens like kale, swiss chard, lettuce and spinach as well as root vegetables like carrots, beets and radishes. Other cool season veggies include broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. Many gardeners will be getting their beans in now while Jim Richards always gets his Peas in around St. Patty's Day (March 17) or a few weeks before the last expected frost. Gina Schley is planting her favorite Dahlia tubers at her flower farm and many have tulips coming up from her fall workshop. Gina always recommends thinking about what part of the plant you will be harvesting. If it is the leaves, it will take less time to mature, but if you are growing tomatoes or large fruiting varieties you might want to start those from seedlings. Happy planting!

Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) provides some wonderful resources including Workshops and online articles about organic community gardening. This article HERE on prepping your soil is helpful for Springtime planting prep. Here are some upcoming events with DUG where you can learn from other gardeners. Colorado Gardener is a great resource with helpful tips for the season, and Here are some great videos from CU Extension on gardening in Colorado and Here are some great articles on specific Colorado gardening topics.

Upcoming Events

• Sat April 26, 9 am: Garden Opening Work Party. We will provide fruit, drinks and pastries.  We will Empty and clean barns, put out hoses, clean tools, weed fence lines, install curbs along Westside, offer training in composting, move gravel, stake out location for new benches, socialize! Watch out for an Evite.

• Sun April 27, 9 am: Garden Design 101 with Gina of Shegrows.com: Don't miss this wonderful FREE learning opportunity! Gina offers a wealth of knowledge having started Rose Roots with our local community. She now works her own flourishing production flower farm. Watch for the Evite. Note: Those who RSVP will get an update via Evite if this needs to be canceled due to weather.

• May 13: 6 pm. First all Gardener Meeting at the garden under the Pavilion. Come meet other gardeners and share your ideas! Note: in person is weather dependent. This meeting will transition to online if wind or rain are in the forecast. Call or text President Laura Bennett at (303) 877-9889 if weather is iffy and you plan to attend.

Welcoming New Neighbors

We are pleased to welcome new neighbors GoFarm, a group of farmers experienced in community-supported agriculture (CSA) farming on the south side of the Hills at Standley Lake Park where Rose Roots resides. GoFarm is a nonprofit organization with a mission to train and support local farmers, connect people with local agriculture, and increase equitable access to nutrient-rich food grown in Colorado. The group joined us for our Open House Registration, offering an informational table and gardening resources. Tessa, President of GoFarm, said they are working to strengthen local food systems to make them equitable, resilient, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive. They aim to support farmers and farm workers so they have the resources they need to thrive and farm safely. GoFarm, with their CSA food distribution, offer local community the opportunity to have reliable access to healthy, local, and sustainably grown food. Check out CSA opportunities at their website: https://www.gofarm.org/

and get tickets starting at $25 for their upcoming GoFarm Sunrise Awards Breakfast at the Golden Hotel on Thurs May 8 from 8-10 am. Come enjoy sustainably grown healthy foods with like-minded people!

A few Plots Still Open

We are currently confirming with several returning gardeners, but it looks like we will have several plots available. Let your friends and family know we'd love to have them join our Rose Roots Community this season! Email us at leadership@roserootsgarden.org if interested.

Plot Fees:

$55/full plot

$30/half and raised plots.

$25 optional membership with DUG

Looking for Donations for Children's Area

We are looking for donations of 40 bags of sand, toys for the play area and a Playhouse. Reach out to leadership@roserootsgarden.org if you'd like to contribute and/or help spruce up the children's play area.

Garden Gratitude

• Thank you to Aaron Amaya for taking on the Pollinator Lead role. We appreciate those of you who continue to help maintain this special space. We are working on scheduling monthly work socials.

• Welcome Maggie Alcorn to the role of Administrator on the Rose Roots Leadership Team. Thank you for serving your garden community!

• Thank you to Daniel Graumiller for all the help with membership registration. This is a big important job at the start of the season, and it has gone so smoothly thanks to his support of our leadership team efforts.

• Much gratitude goes to Leslie Silverman who is helping us make updates to our website. We appreciate her expertise and ideas.

• Thank you to Bill Ott for reinforcing our Compost Bins and maintaining our bee hives which have been very successful pollinator havens over the years.

• Gratitude to Gina Schley with Shegrows.com for providing organic nematodes to help control pests this season and offering a kick off Workshop "Garden Design 101" to help new and experienced gardeners get started this season.

• Thank you to Osiris, Rose Roots Garden member who also works in marketing with Denver Urban Gardens. Anna and Julie helped her pick out seeds as giveaways for our opening day. It was much appreciated!

• We received $529 from the Fight Hunger campaign with King Soopers. Some money will go toward the South pollinator garden maintenance and some towards community plots to grow food for community in need. Thank you King Soopers!

Upcoming Activities

A couple who have made Sundance Films will be using the garden as a backdrop for their latest film. We connected them with a gardener at GoFarm who will be featured. The film will focus on community-supported agriculture and climate change. Keep an eye out in May for their film crew and who knows, you might end up in a movie!

Garden Finances

We expect to have around $5,000 in revenue from plot fees to run the garden this season. We appreciate the effective partnership between Rose Roots Treasurer, Tom Glum, and the Finance team at DUG, to manage our garden finances.

May you have much sun (but not too much), adequate rain (and not too much hail), less pests congregating in your plot, and rich soil to nourish your produce this season. Happy planting.

Rose Roots Leadership Team

Laura Bennett, President

Erin Newton, Vice President

Tom Glum, Treasurer

Maggie Alcorn, Administrator

Gary Williams, Operations

Jim Richards, Operations

Patty Sacks, Special Projects

Jack Nix, Member at Large