Mental Health Benefits of Gardening

RCG March 2022 Newsletter

What’s new at the garden?

Join us on March 12th at 9:30am for Subscriber orientation, with a plant swap and the spring planting day starting that same day from 10:00am until 12:00pm.  We intend to have seedlings available for you to take, plant or trade (longevity spinach, cilantro, kale, cauliflower, Swiss chard, broccoli, and radishes, to name a few).  Bring what you have to share and/or take what we have available.

We will be co-hosting two follow-on events with the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital entitled “Mental Health Benefits of Gardening”.  The remaining events will be held at the Ridgecrest Community Garden on Mar 19th and April 23rd at 1PM.  Join Maria Holm, LSCW, and learn how nature, gardening and mindfulness can help you tackle the stresses of life.  Watch for details on Facebook and sign up to assure your spot and preferred date.  Sign up by calling 760-499-3825 so we know how many attendees to expect and can provide enough seating. The events will be held outside in the garden at 231 W. Haloid in Ridgecrest.

Stop by the garden and participate in our monthly RCG scavenger crossword as you tour through the garden for clues.  Take a picture or scan in your completed crossword and submit your filled in crossword with your name and phone number.  Email to communitygarden.ridgecrest@gmail.com or send via facebook messenger to Ridgecrest Community Garden with subject of CROSSWORD to be entered into our drawing. Drawing will occur during our plant swap on March 12th and the winner will receive a sponsored subscriber bed.  Winner need not be present to win. 

What’s the news from the garden?

A session of the Mental health garden event was held February 26th.  We had a great turnout. There were lots of positive reactions and comments from the event.  Maria Holm, presenter from Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, assured attendees with regards to gardening, “Try your best.  You take the chance, and you just pay attention to everything and if it doesn’t live, it’s still okay because you tried your best to do it.” The event ended with practicing a moment of mindfulness.  If you didn’t have an opportunity to attend our February event, we hope you’ll be able to attend one of the remaining sessions mentioned above.

The raised bed subscriber program continues.  Please visit this link https://www.holisticdivineinnovations.org/subscriber-program for additional information, sign up for a bed, or to sponsor someone else that may not have the financial resources to pay, but would still like to garden.  Time to start your seeds indoors for planting after our latest frost date, usually between March 1st (90% probability of additional freezes) and March 28th (50% probability of additional freezes) for Ridgecrest.  To lessen the risk to 10% probability of additional freezes, wait to plant outdoors until April 24th.  Determine the level of risk you are comfortable with, but have those seedlings ready to go, regardless of your decision (frost dates provided by https://morningchores.com/frost-dates/).

A Day in the Life Youtube Series now has 11 episodes available as of March 1st.  In episode 11, Tyrone Ledford shares glimpses of how the community came together preparing space for new raised beds and planting new fruit trees at the community garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PVI1TuwS6Y  

Stand by for the Holistic Divine Innovations Team to release additional news soon of the approved Herbal Zen Garden site plan and way forward.  If you are interested in contributing or volunteer opportunities, you can email us at communitygarden.ridgecrest@gmail.com

Zen out, Ridgecrest 😊