Our Juneteenth event was a huge success. With our community garden volunteers, subscribers, sponsors and partners, we were able to provide food and activities for the community by hosting a BBQ, a farm to table stand as pictured, a unity wall, and art contest. We had over 175 attendees. We look forward to many more opportunities to provide abundance to the community.
Meet our event Partners
Holistic Divine Innovation
Radiant Love Bloom
UMOJA
Indigenous Home and Garden/Botany’s Desire
Meet our event sponsors
Holistic Divine Innovation
Cerro Coso Community College
Desert Valleys FCU
Starbucks
Stater Bros
Albertsons
MV Bounce house LLC
Summer has come roaring into the garden full force in July, with temperatures immediately exceeding 100 degrees. We are responding accordingly, using sunflowers for shade, keeping moisture in through the use of mulch and woodchips and increasing watering times.
Planned experiments for the garden to be incorporated this month include Electro-culture antenna (copper wire twined around wood) for achieving accelerated plant growth, and passive irrigation with wicking bed and olla. Come see us during our open hours (Saturdays 9-11) to learn more about these methods and become involved in the experimentation process.
Bed Z will be set up as a wicking bed and will determine if the benefits in water conservation are significant enough to encourage us to modify the existing bed structures in the fall to wicking beds before planting our fall garden. Examples of ollas and their use will also be visible and tested. Electro-culture antennas will be used in bed Y to highlight any deltas in growing rates to other beds as they are intentioned.
The Ridgecrest Community Garden board president, Tyrone Ledford, identified an opportunity a grant for $7,500 with the organization gardensforgood.naturespath.com that considers community engagement in determining if a grant is warranted. With the power of community and the support of many others, we were able to rally over 800 votes to come in third place, behind New York and Philadelphia. The website has stated that winners will be notified on July 6th, via email or phone. We appreciate all the love and continued support we have received. You continue to uplift and motivate us, and we are honored to have such a strong support system! We will let you know once we hear the results.
If you are interested in contributing or volunteer opportunities, you can email us at communitygarden.ridgecrest@gmail.com. If you are a subscriber and would like to see your bed featured in a future newsletter, along with an interview on your “why” for gardening, please send a message via Facebook messenger to Ridgecrest Community Garden.
Zen out, Ridgecrest 😊