Some Exciting News to share!
In collaboration with the City of Fairfield, the Sustainable Living Coalition has received grant funding for a new project called the “Fairfield Garden Initiative.” This beautiful new project was created to support low to medium-income individuals and households in Jefferson County to overcome the challenges of food insecurity through organic gardening.
Through this program, we will be offering the following opportunities for the local community:
- Free plant starts – up to 30 per household. The Free Plant portion of the FGI program has closed for the 2022 growing season. Stay tuned for more updates.
- Education and Training Program: a series of 12 hands-on workshops from setting up your garden to harvesting and preserving your produce
- Tool and Resource Lending Library: Providing compost, soil, and garden tools and materials to the local community
We are on our way!
Here’s what we have accomplished as of June 25, 2022
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Recording new educational garden modules monthly. Topics of interest are coming from garden consultations. A huge Thank You to Werner Elmker!
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The FGI program is actively supporting the Giving Community Garden this growing season. All produce grown is donated to the Lords Cupboard.
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The FGI program has a wonderful community centered collaboration with Wild Spirits Farm. We contracted and received 3000 beautiful plant starts for 2022, which have all been distributed. We have the same planned for 2023.
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The Garden Tool Lending Library is up and running. More information about how to access tools in the participant emails.
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Almost 100 bags of Abundant Biology compost distributed, thanks to support from Tiffany at Wild Spirits Farm and Jacob Krieger for the wonderful compost. We have given out 20 bales of organic straw and have more mulch and compost to distribute. If you would like seed for direct sowing, contact Faith. Liquid foliar feed is on the way and much more to come.
Garden Educational Modules
Basic Gardening Tips – From quick garden bed preparations and transplanting to pest management and harvesting. Use the form below to comment or ask questions about the video modules.
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 1: Selecting and preparing a garden bed for transplanting
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 2: Planning out a garden bed. Which plant to put where
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 4: How do we feed young plants once transplanted
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 5: Tucking in our transplants
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 6: Soil structure
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 7: Feeding your Worms
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 8: Making a Sheet Mulch Garden Bed
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 9: Container Gardens
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 10: Tips for Watering your Garden
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 11: Early Summer Weeding, Mulching and Watering
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 12: Plant Health and Pest Issues
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 13: Trellising, Plant Support and Pruning
Basic Gardening Tips – Module 14: What to Harvest When?
Garden Tool Lending Library
These garden tools are available to Fairfield Garden Initiative program participants. To inquire fill out the contact form below.
Resources mentioned in the video modules
Garden fertility and inoculants
Soil and plant feeds
- Thorvin kelp info https://www.midwesternbioag.com/products/thorvin-kelp/
- A simple DIY Kelp foliar prep https://buildasoil.com/blogs/news/11759569-diy-instant-kelp-meal-tea-coots-hydrated-kelp-meal-trick
- Plant-Sure info https://www.agri-dynamics.com/_files/ugd/18d20e_885023237764460bb739108befa0410b.pdf
- Forage Blend info https://www.advancingecoag.com/store/Forage-Foliar-Blend-c20204104
- Meso Alfalfa info https://rodaleinstitute.org/blog/diy-alfalfa-fertilizer-for-higher-yields/
Seed and transplant inoculants
- Spectrum with Myco info https://www.tainio.com/product/spectrum-myco/
- BioCoat Gold info https://www.advancingecoag.com/store/BioCoat-Gold-c20998048
What to plant now
What we can still plant now
Fruition Seed offers great reminders https://www.fruitionseeds.com/learn/
Garden task reminders
Check back soon
Tips for a happy garden
Check back soon
It was an incredible boost to receive the healthy, vibrant free plants from the Fairfield Garden Initiative. Even more helpful was the free consultation with Faith, who pin-pointed problem areas in my garden and gave me natural, non-invasive solutions for the Japanese beetles. I am thrilled to receive a soil test and learn exactly which nutrients my garden needs to thrive. Faith’s knowledge and expertise is taking my gardening to entirely new level. Thank you, Tiffany and Faith and everyone in the Fairfield Garden Initiative! I hope this program can continue as it has helped so many people and is revitalizing the Fairfield garden community.
The FGI and the grant they provided this year gave me the opportunity to truly dive into having a garden and growing our own food. It is giving us experience to learn and become more well versed in supplying healthy home grown food forour families. I have come to love growing my own food and don’t think I would have gotten to this place without them! I am so grateful for the plants and the ongoing resources they continue to offer and hope this program continues to be offered to families who would not otherwise be introduced to growing their own food. Thank you!!
Dear Friends, Thank goodness Faith and her team came to our rescue this spring and summer and into the autumn!! With their help our gardens got off to an early start in the spring with heirloom organic seedlings and knowledge of how to keep the garden growing abundantly even though the temperatures were very high. Thank you very much Faith and Tiffaney for your continued support throughout the growing season. We love gardening with this kind and very generous and extremely knowledgeable team who know a lot about sustainable life-supporting agriculture and enjoy educating us in so many sustainable ways about gardening. We hope that their support will continue next year and the years to come. It’s a blessing that the younger generation is helpful in creating a healthier future for all of us. Enjoy!! Charlotte Judge
Are you interested in participating?
Join the email list. We will be sharing details about the program throughout the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons. Our subsequent plant distribution will begin in spring 2023. All free plant starts will be reserved for participating LMI community members. Check if you qualify by using the table below.
2021 CDBG Median Income Levels (MFI) Income Limits effective June 1, 2021 [MS Excel:40k]
| 1 person 80% MFI | 2 person 80% MFI | 3 person 80% MFI | 4 person 80% MFI | 5 person 80% MFI | 6 person 80% MFI | 7 person 80% MFI | 8 person 80% MFI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,250 | $46,000 | $51,750 | $57,450 | $62,050 | $66,650 | $71,250 | $75,850 |
Join our email list.
We appreciate your interest in the Fairfield Garden Initiative program. By filling out this form, you will opt-in to our email communications. Because this program offers resources and knowledge, we will need to communicate with program participants via email for workshops, activities, and resource coordination. We will aim to send emails relating only to program-specific details. Please opt-in to this email list if you want to join the program.
Stay tuned and keep an eye on your inbox. We will send emails with updates about filmed educational modules, workshops, tool lending library, and other resources.
Location
2143 185 St Fairfield, Iowa 52556
(913) 208-6357
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