2019-Evening Gardening @ Denver's Harvard Gulch Park

Start Date-End Date: 05/30/2019-05/30/2019 Land Manager Office: Grow Local Colorado Land Manager Contact: Barbara Masoner Funding Partner: Grow Local Colorado Programmatic Partner: Grow Local Colorado Summary: Plant vegetable gardens with Grow Local Colorado! For volunteers 8+. **EXCESSIVE WAITLIST: REGISTRATION BY REQUEST ONLY** Description: PLEASE NOTE:This project has an excessively long waitlist! Please contactcontact Emily Schaeferat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 if you would like to register for the waitlist. Where You'll Be: Located in the south Denver neighborhood of Platt Park, Harvard Gulch Park spans multiple blocks and is popular with residents for running and volleyball. The park is also home to the Harvard Gulch Recreation Center, which includes an outdoor pool and 9-hole golf course. What You'll Do: Looking for an easy way to get outside and give back to your community? Look no further! Through our long-standing partnership with Grow Local Colorado, volunteers ages 8+ will spend the evening preparing and planting vegetable gardens in Denver's Harvard Gulch Park. While Grow Local will maintain the gardens throughout the summer, VOC will return in the fall to help harvest the vegetables, which will be donated to local residents in need. Check out our Evening Gardening @ Denver's Observatory Park on May 21 and stay tuned for our fall harvest dates! Why It Matters: The vegetables that volunteers plant will be harvested in the fall and donated to local food banks, homeless shelters, and families in need. This partnership with Grow Local Colorado creates a more connected community; demonstrates the beauty and efficacy of edible gardens; inspires residents to plant their own vegetable gardens; and contributes to a more sustainable food chain by reducing our carbon footprint. Need-to-Know Details: Minors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or olderon single-day projects. VOC will provide all equipment including tools and work gloves. Cancellation:Our partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, pleasecontact Emily Schaeferat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 120,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $24 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visitwww.voc.orgor call 303-715-1010. Latitude/Longitude: 39.6730 N, -104.9795 W Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 15 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 11 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2 Total Volunteer Days: 13 Total Unique Volunteers: 13 Total Volunteer Hours: 30 Staff Hours: 5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: On Thursday May 30th 12 VOC volunteers came out to Harvard Gulch Park to help Grow Local Colorado and the CSU-Extension Office's Master Gardeners to help plant seeds and starter plants for the growing season.The volunteers worked with the Master Gardeners to plant the 800 sq. foot garden. They planted a variety of veggies including (but not limited to) basil, kale, collards, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and peppers, that will all be donated to a nearby food pantry. This garden is estimated to produce over 1000 of food this season. Successes and Challenges: Challenges: We need to drop the numbers on ALL of the grow local projects to no more than 10 people. I need to work with Barbara to better define what would make these projects even more successful. I would really like to see these events be stretched out to more than an hour. When volunteers arrive early and GL/CSU master gardeners are already hard at work doing prep it is hard for volunteers not to dive right in, which makes a talk at the beginning almost impossible. When the prep has already been done the plantings go incredibly fast which when people are 10 min late and come to find a garden that already looks like a garden it is a little disheartening. Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: