Description
Start Date-End Date: 04/23/2022-04/23/2022
Land Manager Office:
Land Manager Contact: Lauren Kelso
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner: Growing Gardens
Summary: Registration opens March 1. There's something for everyone on this farm improvement project near Boulder. Open to volunteers ages 6+!
Description: Project photo by Cole Tucker
Where You'll Be:
The Long Family Farm is the last remaining piece of agriculturally-zoned land in the City of Boulder. The Long family has owned the 25-acre farm for more than 100 years, making it one of Colorado's Centennial farms. The property includes Long's Gardens, a third-generation, family-owned and operated iris farm; fellow nonprofit Mountain Flower Goat Dairy; and 11 acres are leased to Growing Gardens, where we will be working for this project. In the fall of 2019, thanks to the generosity of the Long family and the overwhelming support from the local community, the City of Boulder purchased a Conservation Easement on the property, permanently protecting its agricultural legacy and limiting any future development on the land.
What You'll Do:
Celebrate Earth Day with the whole family on this fun Saturday morning project!While children ages 6-11 enjoy fun, educational activities led by Growing Garden's educational staff, youth ages 12+ will work alongside parents, family members, and other volunteers to tackle a number of projects on the farm. Tasks will include maintaining a crusher fine gravel trail that runs through the educational pollinator garden, installing educational signage, building a paddock for the resident goats and llamas, and re-seeding the orchard.
Why It Matters:
This site has officially been designated a conservation easement, with the intention that it will remain an active urban agricultural and education zone for years to come. The various projects you help complete will support that legacy: the pollinator garden serves as an education tool for over 8,000 youth annually; the paddock will help Growing Gardens utilize the goats and llamas (nature's lawn mowers) in educational programming; and the overall health of the orchard will be increased with the re-seeding of the pasture, which supports the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and food donation portion of their work.
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 128,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $26 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, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010.
Latitude/Longitude: 40.034398, -105.275973
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 30
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 24
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 12
Total Volunteer Days: 36
Total Unique Volunteers: 36
Total Volunteer Hours: 96
Staff Hours: 14
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: This project initially had a desire number of 30 participants. After site visit the land manager suggested opening it to more people with a new target of 40-45 adults. VOC had 2 crew leaders and Growing Gardens had 3 staff/crew leaders. Volunteers were divided in 4: Paddock, Pollinator Garden, Childen's Garden, and Greenhouse teams. Weather at this time of the year was ideal for this project: It was cold in the morning and some volunteers preferred working in the greenhouse and when it got warmer most volunteers worked outside. The day was mostly cloudy which made it nice when digging holes for fencing.
Successes and Challenges: Successes: Volunteers transplanted over 120 trays of tomatoes and basil, prepped and planted multiple beds in the Children's Garden (including a few hundred seedlings there), mulched the garlic with straw, weeded all our spring greens in the field, set almost all of the posts (11 out of 13) into some very hard ground for the goat paddock, AND added a new pathway to our pollinator garden and banished the wild rose from that garden.
Challenges:
Changing the ideal number of participants close to the project date was challenging since most people in the waitlist had already made new plans for that weekend.
VOC paid Growing Gardens for youth programming for kids 6 to 11 years old. However, we only had 1 kid within that age range out of the 12 youth registered.
Lessons Learned: Digging holes early in the season is challenging since the soil can still be frozen deeper down.
There is tick layer of clay in the soil in this area. Adding water to the holes when diggingDOES NOT help.
Special Notes: Most youth enjoy transplanting seedlings at the greenhouse and this does not require a special youth program.
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 6 and older |
