Upcoming Events
Wed Aug 25, 5:30-7:30 pm: Rose Roots is hosting a first time ever Mid-week Micro Social along with DUG CORPS. We have invited the 34 gardens in our Northside Nasturtiums DUG Micro-Network and it would be great to have a fabulous turnout from Rose Roots Gardeners. We will have Youth activities, garden tours, drinks and snacks and music. Come out, welcome and meet our regional garden neighbors!
Bring family and friends and please RSVP Here by Aug 24 so we can be sure to have enough tour guides and treats available.
Sat Aug 28, 9-11:30 am: DUG Micro-Network visit to our Neighbors Little Sprouts Community Garden.
See Calendar Here for details.
Requesting Supplies from Gardeners
Do you have grass clippings or cardboard?
We are in need of green materials (pesticide free lawn clippings) and cardboard for our "Lasagna Garden" layering project for our West Side Landscaping Improvements. We are making soil!
1. Bring us your green grass clippings and shrub trimmings (also think about leaves from hail storm clean up) and place them on the new planting beds, in a 3-4" layer, adjacent to our west fence line.
2. We also need cardboard to establish a base for the next layer. Please save your boxes, (with tape removed) and deliver them to the barn (I will be there) on Saturday September 3, when we'll start the second layer on our planting beds.
3. We can also use pesticide-free leaf material for our fall top layer. We'll put out a call in late September or October for leaves.
Contact our Westside Landscaping Lead and VP Patty Sacks at pjsacks@gmail.com with questions. Our next work day will be Sept 4 at 9 am and Patty will be there to collect cardboard, but if you'd like to bring it over earlier you can put it behind the barn.
Gardener Gratitude: Every Little Bit Counts
Thank you to Maggie and others for coming out daily and weeding community spaces. You can often see her smiling face in the pollinator garden or community plots keeping the weeds at bay and carefully protecting the pollinator favorites, herbs and drought-resistant plants thriving throughout the garden. As an All Volunteer organization, we appreciate the extra time and effort put forth by many of our dedicated members.
Friends of Rose Roots: Plant-A-Tribute Tree Program
We are accepting donations for trees that will be planted to the West of the garden. These trees will shade a Farm-to-Table community space and natural reflective walking paths along with planting beds and seating areas. Those being offered tribute will be named at the dedication. To benefit the Westside Landscaping project you can donate an individual tree, or become a Friend of Rose Roots at Four Sponsor levels:
Friends of Rose Roots Sponsor Levels:
$200 Bronze Bumble Bee
$500 Silver Squash
$1,000 Golden Gourd
$2,500 Platinum Pepper
Donate-a-Tribute Tree with three years maintenance:
$300 Deciduous
$600 Evergreen
Please Contact Rose Roots Treasurer John Malito at john.malito7@gmail.com for more information and to support your community garden.
Community Engagement: Implementing Westside Landscaping Project
On Saturday August 14, for the second time this season, Jason Andersen appeared with 10 volunteers from the Church of Latter Day Saints to help Rose Roots kick off the West Side Landscape Improvements Project. We began by installing the first partial layer of two "Lasagna Beds" just off the west boundary of Rose Roots garden. "Lasagna Gardening" is a layering concept to establish planting beds in weedy areas. First, the area is watered, then a layer of cardboard or heavy weed barrier paper is laid over the bed, then a 3-4" layer of compost is added, then with a little
help from our gardeners, lawn clippings (organic - no pesticides), a layer of green material finishes the layer, then another layer of all three materials is added to complete the bed. We'll let it decompose over winter and plant with native plants in the spring. Many thanks to Theresa McKinney for assisting with our early morning set-up for the volunteers. This team deserves accolades. They accomplished a tremendous amount of work within a two hour timeframe. We're planning another event in late September!
Contact Westside Landscaping Lead and VP Patty Sacks at pjsacks@gmail.com for more information.
Produce Donation Update
You gardeners are incredible growers! The Produce donation program is going Gangbusters! You have donated nearly 1,000 lbs of produce this season and we are about to meet and smash our goal of 15,000 lbs donated in 9 years of giving!
Note: Often gardeners have apple, pear, plum and other fruit trees at home. Don't let that fabulous fruit go to waste! Let your family friends and neighbors know we'd be happy to take it and donate to the Community Table and Veggie Van. Feel free to leave fruit in the barn, label as "outside community donation" and it will be picked up on either Monday or Thursday morning by our busy produce delivery bees.
How to Make Friends and Influence People
We'll give you a hint. It's not by growing ginormous sunflower forests and watching your poor neighbor's plot wilt and languish in the shade of the flowers :)
Sunflowers: They are tenacious, beautiful, resilient, impressive, a metaphor for positivity faith and hope as they turn with the sun chasing the light. When its cloudy, they even turn towards each other to share their energy. They are a favorite of goldfinches, other birds and pollinators, and gardeners who like to see something vigorous survive!
However: They are sun hogs. They shade neighboring plots. They are not compostable. And, we field more complaints about sunflowers than anything else in the garden. Go easy on us and your garden neighbors and keep 'em under control so we don't have to send the Sunflower Police after ya! Plus, if you're always thinking "What can I do to be a good garden neighbor?" maybe someone will leave you some nice notes or zucchini bread. But be sure to keep a few for the growing contest below.
Arvada Harvest Festival
The City of Arvada has just approved moving forward with the Arvada Harvest Festival! Bring your biggest veggies down to Old Town for the Annual Harvest Fest Parade and Growing Contest and Represent for Rose Roots!
When: Sat Sept 11, 2021: 12-2 pm
What: Veggie Growing Contest, Food Fair, Spelling Bee
Where: Old Town Arvada, The Young's Market booth at
Arvada k-8, 5751 Balsam Street, Arvada
Categories
*KIDS 12 & Under*
*Largest Zucchini
*Best Dance Decorated Vegetable
* Most Unusual Vegetable
ADULTS 13 & UP
Longest Green Onion
Widest Diameter Sunflower
Largest Bell Pepper
Longest Green Bean
Longest Carrot w/top
Largest Onion
Largest Zucchini
Longest Chili Pepper
Best Dance Decorated Vegetable
(Iongest/widest is by length)
(largest is by weight)
RULES
*No late entries
*One entry per category per family
* All entries must be homegrown
Ribbons & Gifts for all entries, GREAT PRIZES for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place winners!
More info about the Harvest Festival Here.
And for a Gardener Appreciation prize if you haven't won already, be the first two people to email us and tell us in which section "Zucchini Bread" bread was mentioned. Also keep an eye out for our upcoming returning gardener and new gardener waitlist which will come out in September for next season.
Getting Resocialized at the Garden
A lot of people have been holed up or social distancing for a long time. Sometimes we get rusty at being around other humans not in our pod. Here are some tips:
-Before you speak, ask yourself "Is what I'm about to say helpful, kind, or necessary?"
-When socializing don't be a close talker...people aren't really into close quarters these days.
-Try learning a new name every day and one thing about a garden neighbor. You may have more in common than you think.
-Instead of saying something that will spread anxiety, consider the garden a sacred peaceful place of healing and hope. Look for something kind to say to a neighbor. It might just cause a ripple of community strengthening.
Get in Touch
Erin Newton, Garden President
(720) 702-8806
Stay Informed
Check the Garden Calendar Here for Updates. See you out at the garden!
In Service to our Community,
Rose Roots Steering Committee