USFS community garden idea taking root
By Kathryn Reed
Two or three 4 foot by 10 foot raised beds won’t grow enough food to feed many people, but it’s the first start to having a community garden on the South Shore.
Dubbed the People’s Garden by the Interior Department, the initiative comes out of first lady Michelle Obama’s desire to get the country eating healthier. If the White House can create a vegetable garden, why not the Forest Service office in South Lake Tahoe?
A meeting of gardening types on Monday brought forth a ton of ideas about how best to accomplish this.
“There was quite a bit of good local gardening expertise in the room,” USFS spokeswoman Cheva Heck said of the June 20 meeting. “We expect the garden to be pretty small scale. This summer we will obtain the resources to build it and maybe next year we will see produce.”
Money needs to be secured to build or buy the beds. Volunteers – not just Forest Service employees – will provide the man/womanpower.
It’s likely a charity will partner with the Forest Service and then become the beneficiary of the bulk of the produce. Bread & Broth representatives were at the meeting this week.
With the Forest Service office being on leased property from Lake Tahoe Community College, permission had to be granted to do this. At first there was talk of putting the veggie garden by the college’s demonstration garden, but that wasn’t going to work – especially with the lack of sun at that location.
As the garden takes off, it may grow in terms of size and function. The Tahoe Resource Conservation District envisions it being an education tool for how to garden in high altitude locations.
This is such a great project, and an outstanding example of
entities working together for the good of all!
There is so much to learn about high altitude gardening! I have been attempting it for about 7 years with minimal success. I look forward to this project!
A small but important first step. The idea of having community gardens has been steadily growing (couldn’t resist) and this project should be a catalyst for other similar garden projects…including ones that use snow load capable greenhouses for year-round food production. One such greenhouse design employs a geodesic dome and has been successfully used in high altitude snow conditions from Colorado to Alaska. With the addition of solar panels and/or geothermal heat pumps, they can be kept warm without energy from the grid.
Aside from providing fresh, organic produce for locals, a network of both seasonal and year-round gardens would be a unique contribution to marketing our town as a geotouristic, sustainable destination. Imagine visitors to our local restaurants being offered salad and vegetable dishes that were picked that morning from local organic gardens and grown in compost fortified soil that started as local food scraps 2 months ago. That is a true closed loop system that not only reduces landfilling of valuable compostables, but provides highly nutritious, locally grown food.
This is in keeping with what both National Geographic’s Geotourism program and the Basin Prosperity Plan envision as a way to re-energize our flailing economy. It’s one piece of the puzzle that should be in place as we transition from a gaming based economy to a healthy lifestyle, outdoor recreation Mecca based ecomomy. Grow it and they will come!