Let's Get This Garden Started!

Our first work day on the garden for this season was very productive. Upon arrival to the garden, we quickly realized a few things:

1. the wind in CO is very strong...strong enough to bend metal & destroy gazebos!

2. if you don't pull plants & till in the fall, the dead plants don't miraculously disappear!

3. we have been truly blessed with an amazing garden, education space, and opportunity for spiritual renewal (who knew you could get all of that from a piece of land!!)

Here are a few photos from before & after for our day. We were able to accomplish A LOT!! Thanks to all those who came out to volunteer their time & efforts.

Refresh Everything

Hello,It is with great excitement that I am writing to get your help with an important project....actually two important projects. Pepsi is offering grant money that we are in the running for during the month of April. From April 1-31st, we need as many people as possible to vote for the projects. If you would help us out, please: go to the following links, register EVERY email address that you have, and vote EVERY DAY so that we can help local families and students.

Both of these projects are very important to me & I would appreciate your help in voting & sending this to every family or friend that you think may help by voting as well.

www.refresheverything.com/brigitsbounty: your DAILY vote will help us to raise money for a continued & growing garden that supplies many local families with free fresh vegetables throughout the summer months, food for the food bank, and educational opportunities for local elementary, montessori, and daycare students.

www.refresheverything.com/frederickelementary: your DAILY vote will help us raise money for the children in Firestone, Frederick, and Dacono to receive funding assistance for after-school programming, enrichment, presentations, and technology.

We need all the votes that we can get. Only the top 10 projects in each area will be granted the money. Each of these projects are in different categories so they are not in competition with each other. Every registered email can vote for 10 projects each day, so we are requesting that you register every email address that you have so that you can vote as many times each day as possible!! If you have any questions about how to register your email or how to vote, please feel free to contact me. The voting started today so we need to start voting as soon as possible.

Vote daily:) We are counting on your votes to help support the kids and families in this community!

Brandi-Lynn

What Ever It Takes (REALLY RANDOM!!)

So, I have been thinking about the school recently and how we, as parents, send our kids to school every day and entrust the eduction & well being to teachers. Once a year on teacher appreciation day, they are given some token to show our gratitude. What about the rest of the year? They play one of the most important roles in our childrens lives & throughout the year how do we support them?
And then our church stewardship season began. As I sat each day praying about the time, talent, and treasure that we give to the church something came to me. I am willing to outwardly admit that last year I think I said I would give 1-2 hours a week to the church.
Now my random ramblings are going somewhere....
1-2 hours a week, ha! After receiving one of the most amazing gifts in the form of a grant for a garden, the thought of only 'giving' 1-2 hours a weeks seems almost humourous. There were weeks this summer when the kids and I spent 20 hours a week there! So, it came to me as I was thinking about the church stewardship that maybe I shouldn't think about it so defined by a specific hour, instead this year I plan to write..."what ever it takes". That is what I plan to give to the church, not just an hour or two, but what ever it takes. I also came to the decision that we should be thinking about schools in a similar way. The school asks parents to give 3 hours of volunteer time a year! That's it. That is all they ask that we as parents give back to the school to assist in the education and growth of our children. That is almost mind boggling to me. Last year I thought I could give 1-2 hours A WEEK to the church, and the school was only asking for 3 hours during the entire year. Now, I am clearly an admitted obsessive parent so I was at the school more than 3 hours!
But I feel that this all tied together in my mind, so I will do "what ever it takes". To me the phrase, "Pay It Forward" comes to mind. So, whether it is your church, your kids school, or some other community based project that is important to your heart.... what can you give this year???

Growing in Greatness

"Growing in Greatness" is the title I used for the bulletin board at Frederick Elementary School. On Sept 8th & 9th, the school sent over classes of kids to help learn about gardening, harvesting, participate in community service projects, and get some hands-on education. I think all goals were achieved. They picked over 600 tomatoes! We had over 100 kids each day walk from the school to the garden. Almost 3 weeks later and these kids are still talking about the garden. I walked into the school the other day and a child said, "hey, you are the garden lady". That isn't a name I thought I would ever be called! What an amazing experience we were able to provide for these kids....starting this young, these kids will be growing in greatness as they learn to give back to the community how ever they can!

This picture is blurry, but gives you an idea as the kids walked down the road!

Helping harvest & cleaning the vegetables for the foodbank...

Hidden Valley Goal Achieved

I wanted to post quickly to share that tonight the goal of Hidden Valley Ranch was achieved! The hope was with the grant that children's would learn more about gardening and vegetables and in turn...they would eat more. Well, tonight, my very picky child ate.....Kohlrabi:) He helped me pick up the small plants from the garden store in July, dug the holes, planted them into the garden...and tonight he ate them. Not only did he eat them, but he enjoyed them!! He was proud that he had helped to plant them & now he was eating them. So, thank you Hidden Valley Ranch. Not only did I get an amazing learning adventure to Chicago, money to start a garden, the opportunity to learn & grow a wonderful garden, but the biggest gift yet is to watch my children eat things that they didn't even know existed a month ago.

Sorry so long....lots of good news to share in the upcoming days!!

I am sorry I haven't written in over a month. Apparently adults too can get mono....sleeping all day & just being generally tired doesn't fit into my lifestyle! So, a lot has happened in the past month & I hope to post a lot in the next week to get us back up to date.
Also:
- a man from Longmont who is starting an urban garden contacted me in July....I have lost his number (sorry!!) If you are reading this, please call me again because I really do want to help.

Check back in the next couple days for some great updates & photos!

Everything Grows

The boys and I spent a couple hours at the garden this morning. I have discovered a few things:

1. I really enjoy being at the garden

2. I think about really random things while I am working at the garden

3. We are good at growing vegetables.

4. We are really good at growing weeds:)

Vegetables: The boys and I picked so many zuchinni, summer squash, gourds (didn't even know we planted those!), cucumber, cauliflower, a small number of peas, and beets. Need to still pick more beets, cucumbers, carrots, and basil. Also learned about the growing and harvesting of cauliflower. Unfortunately, all the cauliflower that we have grown have gone bad! Ugh. So, should we plant more and try again??

On to my random thought for the day:

I was thinking that maybe some scientist or engineer or other genious type person would be reading this tonight and get some inspiration. Ha, I know, I also laughed thinking about someone like that reading my blog about a little garden! Anyways, if you are reading this and concerned about fuel sources I have an idea. I think that someone should create a way to turn bind weed into fuels! I have enough bind week to supply a million people so if there was a way we could change it into fuel the world could be saved:) I warned you ahead of time that it was a random thought!!