The Gardens on Spring Creek

thread-leaf groundsel, Senecio flaccidus   What’s Blooming in The Gardens:  Native Plants by Sherry Fuller, Curator, The Gardens on Spring Creek   Summer’s heat might slow us down, but the native plants in our Foothills Garden are still providing abundant flowers.   Adding native plants to your garden provides pollen, nectar and seeds uniquely adapted to our pollinators and birds.   Native plants require little or no soil amendment, or fertilizer, and generally less water.   They also tolerate the extreme temperature fluctuations, high intensity sunlight, low humidity, high winds, unpredictable precipitation and poor soil that we all struggle with in our Northern Colorado gardens.   The Gardens on Spring Creek began planting the Foothills Garden in the fall of 2018 and are continuing to add plants as we grow new varieties.   Currently we have at least 4,500 plants in the garden with about close to 300 species of native plants and their cultivars represented.   paintbrush, casti

People working in a field at a U.S. War Gardens plot in Glenwood Springs, Colorado during World War I.   Photo courtesy of Colorado State University archives.  Learn more at  https://mountainscholar.org/handle/10217/180054 The Rise of the 2020 Victory Garden by Michelle Provaznik, Executive Director, The Gardens on Spring Creek Due to recent events surrounding the novel coronavirus, there has been a resurrection of Victory Gardens during this time of crisis. Whether due to an abundance of free time or uncertain food supplies, we are seeing a return to the garden like never before.   Victory Gardens began in World War I when governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and others encouraged citizens to plant food gardens in their yards and public areas as a means to supplement the food supply as well as to boost morale.   Victory Gardens came back strong during World War II as noted in the 1944 Combined Annual Report of County Extension Workers for Larimer County.  

The U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) and American Public Gardens Association have partnered to offer immediate support to established urban agriculture and other urban food-growing programs at public gardens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, the USBG and the Association awarded $378,000 to 28 public gardens across the United States to help sustain urban agriculture and community food growing during this challenging time. The Urban Agriculture Resilience Program aims to promote resilience, grow capacity, prevent shortfalls, and gather best practices from established programs across the U.S. public gardens community. The Friends of The Gardens on Spring Creek, the nonprofit partner of The Gardens on Spring Creek, a City of Fort Collins cultural services facility, is one of the recipient gardens. The Gardens on Spring Creek grows more than 7,000 pounds of food annually for the Food Bank for Larimer County through its Garden of Eatin’ and manages eight community garden locations –