New gardens ready to sprout up county wide

It started out as a broad challenge to plant 350 new water wise
gardens in one weekend, and a grassroots—or is it beet
roots—movement quickly sprang up in communities across the
county.
One week before the target weekend of May 15 and 16, the 350
Garden Challenge exceeded its goal. “We’re going for 500 new
gardens now,” Daily Acts Executive Director Trathen Heckman
said.
The idea of mass, simultaneous garden plantings is relatively
new, and Sonoma County is on track to be the largest in the state
to date. After Sonoma County announced its challenge, Oakland
followed suit.
The Sonoma County 350 Garden Challenge was founded and
coordinated by four partnership organizations: iGROW, Daily Acts,
GoLocal and Living Mandala. But once the concept was established,
other local non-profit organizations, government departments, and
dedicated individuals took up the cause and got to work planning
edible, water wise gardens in their local communities.
In Healdsburg, the city’s Parks & Recreation department,
Farm to Pantry and Mary Barclay worked together to break ground.
Four new gardens will be going in at the Healdsburg Community
Center: a community garden, a Farm to Pantry garden to provide
fresh food for low-income residents, a garden for the benefit of
after school programs, and a Parks & Recreation demonstration
garden.
“We’ll also be installing a container garden at the Labor Center
and distributing containers, compost and vegetable starts and seeds
at the Healdsburg Food Pantry on Friday, May 14th,” said Farm to
Pantry’s Melita Love. “Materials, compost, soil and plants for
these three projects have been generously donated by the City of
Healdsburg, Mix Garden, Love Gardens, Preston Vineyards, Soda Rock
Farm, and SBI.”
In Windsor, the Windsor Garden Club and Windsor Service Alliance
are rallying to educate residents about the benefits of homegrown
produce and assist them with starting up edible gardens of their
own. The Windsor Service Alliance—an all-volunteer
organization—will be finishing the installation of their plots,
which are designed to provide fresh food for low income residents.
They will also be distributing free tomato plants on Friday
afternoon.
Kelley Rajala, the Executive Director of GoLocal, explained the
mission of the 350 Garden Challenge. “The whole goal is to raise
awareness about local food production and water wise gardens, so
gardens that are low water intensity.” While many gardens going in
are private, Rajala noted that the weekend will offer over 20 model
garden projects that will emphasize education and outreach to local
residents.
The number 350 is a reference to 350 parts per million, the
carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere deemed safe. Current
atmospheric concentration is approximately 390.
The 350 Garden Challenge concept was born in February, and the
event had a short growing season: from germination to fruition in
13 weeks. On Sunday evening from 5 to 8 p.m., a concluding pot-luck
celebration and garden blessing will be held at Juilliard Park in
Santa Rosa. The entire county is invited. Local musicians and Aztec
dancers will provide live entertainment, and event organizers will
report on the weekend’s activities. Drinks will be for sale to help
cover the costs of the event.