Hello Gardeners!

We will be hosting a meeting on March 29th at 7PM. The meeting will be in the Fireside room behind Jasmine’s Cafe. We will be signing Land Use Agreements and deviding up garden responsibilities for this season. I encourage anyone that is interested to come out and meet the gardeners and get more information about Bridge Community Garden! This will also be a great opportunity to meet current plot holders and look into joining our Student Mentor Program.

Email at info@dugardens.org with any questions!

The Bridge Community Garden Steering Committee will be meeting next week to work out available plot space for this summer. If you are interested in obtaining a plot, please send an email to info@dugardens.org. We’ll get back to you in the upcoming weeks and let you know if we have space.

We had a blast getting the permaculture garden started the past ten weeks. We owe a lot of big thanks for getting this project off the ground. There was a ton of time and advice donated from all the great guys over at Facilities. Mark Rodgers and Martin Quigley shared both expertise and lots of patience with us.

Of course, the project wouldn’t have gone anywhere with out the students who were out there building it. We had two classes out there every Wednesday full of students ready to get to work (well they were ready to work at least most Wednesdays). It was certainly unusual Fall weather but that didn’t stop us!

David Ciepley, the professor of both of these classes, has been both the brains and leader behind this entire project. Without him, we’d still be mapping out a design.

We have some fantasticcc photos from some nicer workdays. Check them out on our flickr account here: Permaculture Garden Fall 2009.

Feed Denver is throwing a bombbbb two-day workshop. Tons of information on some very cool topics. Check out the details below. DU is hoping to send at least two students. Hope to see you there.

This two-day, intensive, hands-on workshop will show how sustainable, healthy local food production can be developed in an urban setting with urban farming pioneer and winner of the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” Will Allen and his Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Team.

This training offers diverse groups the opportunity to learn, plan, develop, operate and sustain community food projects. Participants leave the workshop with improved skills that they can take back into their communities and pass on to others. These workshops are for both rural and urban projects.

Workshop breakout sessions may include: compost & Vermicompost, Aquaponics, Hoophouse Construction,
Year-Round Greenhouse Production, Urban Animal Husbandry, Planning for Urban Agriculture, Community Project Design

November 14 -15, 2009

Saturday: 8am-5pm, Sunday 9am-3pm
at The Urban Farm at Stapleton
10200 Smith Road, Denver, CO  80239

This Saturday, Oct 24th, the Bridge Community Garden will be hosting a free workshop on cold frames (Not familiar with Cold Frames?). The workshop will start at 10a and run for about 3-4 hours. This is a hands-on workshop so we will be building working models for some of our gardeners.

We’ll talk about the construction, maintenance, and what you can plant. No RSVP required but if you do plan on coming, please drop us an e-mail (info@dugardens.org). The Bridge Community Garden is located at 1819 S. High St. Hope to see ya there.

We will be doing a whole bunch of work/projects in the community garden this Saturday so come on by and give us a hand. We’ll be grilling out and will provide a free lunch. Projects include building a bulleting board, finishing our fence and gate, expanding some pathways, and laying the foundation for an outdoor grill.

The workday will start at 9a and will end around 4ish (but if you know us, it’ll probably be closer to 6). Come lend a hand, meet some new friends, and get down with DU Gardens. See you on Saturday.

DU recently expanded the Korbel School of International Studies and thoughtfully gave the Undergraduate Student Government Sustainability Committee some land to garden on! We are working closely with a faculty member, David Ciepley, to design/build a garden that works within the principles of Permaculture (Check out the wikipedia article on Permaculture).

Two of David’s classes, CORE: Sustainable Living and FYS: Living off the Grid, are spending one class a week in the garden. We are currently working on grading, digging tree basins, running drip irrigation, seeding a cover crop, and installing pathways. We have a lot of work ahead of us but we are all really excited to see what we can accomplish by the end of the quarter. To get involved or for more info, please e-mail info@dugardens.org. Maps of the garden below!

DU Magazine recently ran a story in their Fall 2009 issue on the Bridge Co-mmunity Garden. A pretty cool article that can be found here…

Every summer Denver Urban Gardens hosts a garden bike ride. This year, the Bridge Community was included as one of the stops. It was pretty exciting to be able to show off all of our hard work this past Spring. One of the riders keeps a blog and had some nice things to say about all the gardens. Check it out here…. http://janetdillon.wordpress.com/

It is amazing to see how much we have accomplished in the Bridge Community garden over the past few months. We’re excited to see the progress continue as we further expand the University of Denver’s first community garden. We’ll be having an ‘all-hands’ workday this upcoming Saturday (June 20th). All are welcome to attend as we certainly have a big list of projects. We’ll start the workday at 9a and work till 4p. Feel free to contact us (duenvironmental@gmail.com) with any questions. Hope to see you out there.