Greetings Rose Roots Gardeners and Friends,
Happy Mother's Day to anyone who has loved a mother or been one, and happy Mother's Day to our Mother Earth who is thriving with all this rain! Here is a great guide provided by Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) on what to plant when in Colorado.
We had a wonderful Kick Off Work Party on April 29th with a delicious brunch, many worker bees, and the opportunity to meet our new gardeners! See some memories below.
2023 Kick Off Work Party April 29
Thank you all for your support of the West Side Project. What a day we had on Saturday May 6! We had about 20 gardeners sign in and 10 crew members from Jeffco in all. We toiled until 2:00 PM, some until 3 or 4 PM, and tallied 134 volunteer hours for the day! Wow! We planted 28 trees and shrubs, moved countless yards of mulch, and began work on the compost bins. What a difference a day makes. Thanks so much to gardeners, community members, and leaders for organizing supplies, breakfast and lunch for the volunteers. Great job!
Westside Landscaping Tree Planting:
May 6, 2023
If you would like to support this project and help us get more trees and shrubbery in, please consider becoming a sponsor as a Friend of Rose Roots. This is a wonderful opportunity to support gardeners growing community and nurture the soil by planting trees and ground cover as well as supporting irrigation installation costs. Several of our trees were provided by generous donors who we plan to honor at a Farm to Table dedication event in the space when it is complete.
Rose Roots 2023 Westside Landscaping Project Tree Planting
Upcoming Events
Tues May 16, 6 pm: Rose Roots Monthly Garden Meeting, at the garden, weather permitting. (Plan B: Erin's house. Call (303) 253-5090 if you'd like to attend, but weather is looking good for garden meeting).
Mark you calendars! June 18, 8 am: City of Arvada Pollinator Garden Tour
Sunday Morning Pollinator Garden Work Parties: this is a repeating event. Come when you can, and help maintain community spaces for our pollinators.
Giving Gratitude
Thank you to Laura Bennett, Gamma Acosta, Patty Sacks, Kendra Eliason and all you busy gardeners for organizing supplies for the tree planting party, including a tree hole digger, mulch, food, community participation, and trees and shrubs to plant.
Thank you to Keith Sorci and his astounding work crew for their dedicated work on our Westside work project, which totaled 50 community hours.
Thank you to Cate Camacho for stepping up and leading Youth activities for our opening day. Young gardeners made painted rock creations to spread colorful love around the garden.
Thank you to Katie Meis for leading the Pollinator Garden this season!
Thank you to Alyson Katz for leading the Food Donation Team and to John and Cindee Malito for mentoring her into the role.
Thank you to Laura Bennett for submitting a neighborhood improvement grant bid to the City of Arvada to help support the Westside Improvement project and giving St. Ann's Green Team, led by Erin Hensley, a garden tour.
Thank you to Membership Lead Christie Morin for getting all our plots assigned and registered this season.
KiDs CoRnEr
Grayson Inman, a 9 year old active Rose Roots gardener reports:
Favorite thing about Rose Roots: The garden is so welcoming for kids and I love to garden with my brother, friends, parents and grandparents. It's given me a lot of confidence in my ability to figure things out and I love designing our plot layout every year and picking what we will plant. I even have my own raised herb garden at home now and love cooking with my fresh herbs with my dad. We try to get 5 veggies in a day, and it's so cool that we grew them ourselves.
What have you learned in 9 years of gardening with Rose Roots: I have learned when to plant what vegetables, how to design and install a trail, how to use many gardening tools, and how to make friends. Watching my mom in leadership at the garden, I decided to join my school leadership team because it's fun to be part of the planning process.
What is your favorite thing to plant: I love planting beets and sunflowers. I love that beets grow so well and are so delicious when you roast them. I love that sunflowers are so tenacious, grow so tall, and always turn their faces toward the sun.
What are your favorite events at that garden: I like the music events, the Easter egg hunt, and of course the bbq potlucks and all the treats. I loved walking over from our school and doing a scavenger hunt at the garden, and I've enjoyed the city wide pollinator garden tour, volunteering at Trails Day with my family, and going on group bike rides to the different pollinator gardens around the city.
What is your best memory at the garden: It's hard to say, because I have a lot of great memories there. Last year we finished building a trail on the Westside and I remember saying to myself, "Wow, look how far we've come this year!" Also, a gardener brought over a cool tomato worm in a mud shell and explained how they dig in and winter over in a little mud hollow. I've seen so many cool insects and pollinators at the garden and it inspired me to take an insect class at the Butterfly Pavilion.
What is your worst memory in the garden: When I was little I had never seen red ants and I thought they were nice bugs, so I stood in a pile of them. They worked their way up my body, and when they started biting, I started screaming and multiple gardeners came running and hosed me down. I've learned that not all insects are friendly.
Would you say the garden is kid friendly? "Yes! Everyone is so welcoming, we love playing in the sandboxes, the two kid gardens with Teepees, and doing art projects with natural supplies for special events.
What will you always remember about growing up in Rose Roots: I feel like it's my community. Whenever someone is having trouble, someone always comes to help like when we were trying set up an irrigation system, some gardeners showed us how and even shared some of their supplies. I also like how I I get to hang out with my grandparents who garden next to us, and people who have come to feel like aunts and uncles. Maybe someday I'll have my own plot and can show others how to get started!
What's next on the Westside Project?
1. Complete moving mulch to pine tree near the West Side Gate
2. Add weed barrier fabric and gravel to the area where the porta-potty was sited last year. Then add gravel to areas that are thin. We have plenty left in our pile. We just didn't put enough down last season.
3. Compost area - lots of work underway there. Kendra and Patty will assist with adding a couple more bins and sorting and excavating the compost material. Plenty of work for volunteers there.
4. Do we have a leaky old wheelbarrow without a wheel? It will do just fine planted up in West Side where we intend to someday place a sculpture.
5. Patty will be sending a pollinator list to Katie Meis and Shannon Sawyer for review and advice. We'd like to order perennials for the pollinator bed and get them planted in a few weeks.
6. We'd like to acquire some planters for West Side, with planting mix, as well as a couple concrete curb stops to install so we can keep vehicles off the graveled area.
7. We need to determine how to get the trees on a drip system, or watered by sprays.
Westside Landscaping Project Vision for the Future:
After the recent tree planting, we are planning to add an entrance to the pathway, picnic tables, a sculpture, perennials, irrigation, planting beds, roses, and hops to shape the Farm to Table community gathering space when funds are available.
Gardener of the Month
Christie Morin, Membership Lead, has toiled endlessly assigning plots, following up with gardeners, ensuring everyone has what they need, and making sure all of our plots are full! When two gardeners were struggling, Christie got and delivered food for them from the garden. Thank you Christie for helping us improve processes, having extreme follow through, and jumping onto the Leadership Team with both feet in! Christie has helped facilitate a fabulous season start!
We look forward to seeing you all out at the garden,
Rose Roots Leadership Team