Legacy Garden

Yes, it’s time to start getting the garden ready for the 2017 growing season! Tuesday morning some of our Colorado Master Gardeners from the Arapahoe County 

Extension Office came by to start getting our Legacy Garden area ready for planting next month, clearing out and cutting down all manner of last year’s growth. Zach, our student from Montana, couldn’t pass up the chance to be outside on such a lovely morning.

In the photos below, he takes the stalks of Russian Sage to task, making way for new growth this year. The Russian Sage has a great scent throughout the summer, and is just one plant of many that offer odors, from savory to sweet in our Legacy Garden. And we can’t forget about the great veggies and herbs that we’ll be planting soon!

The mornings are cool and the colors turning. There were still loads of tomoatoes, green to read, not to mention the ripe pumpkins on wat may be one of the last weeks our sudents work in our Legacy Garden with the Arapahoe Master Gardeners.

This week it was the first-hour Tech Classes who got to work in the garden. From veterans like Tech Instructor Chris Parsons (who breakfasted on tomatoes directly off the vine, to brand-new students like David in his first day at the Center, it was a festive mood bringing in so much produce before the first frost hits. For those who’ve been around since the first plantings last June, it’s satisfying, yet bittersweet. Like every year, though, the garden is a big part of our summer months at the Center!

Every Tuesday morning a different group of Center students heads out back to our Legacy Garden to meet the Colorado Master Gardeners from Arapahoe County, and to see just what’s happening out there. Students work with the Master Gardeners to plant, cultivate and harvest the bounty. In these hot, hot days of August the lilies are done blooming, but the vegetable garden comes into its own, and it really is a bounty!

On recent Tuesdays students have begun bringing in eggplant, zucchini (quite large), tomatoes, tomatillos, various peppers, kale, cucumbers, celery, basil and peaches! The produce is used in the kitchen in Home Management class or taken home for personal cooking by the students at the McGeorge Mountain Terrace Apartments. If there’s any leavings, staff gather it up for their own kitchens.

What could be better than freshly picked, home grown (organic) produce? Hmmm, maybe only the confidence and satisfaction that comes from knowing that you helped grow it!