Public gardens offer organic food on the cheap

Have a hankerin’ for some homegrown organic fruits and vegetables but don’t want to pay health-food store prices?
Then get your hands dirty in one of Missoula’s six community gardens.

The six public gardens help validate Missoula’s reputation as the Garden City by hosting plots of land that interested growers can rent for a season to raise whatever they like.
Individual plots for the 2008 growing season sold out over two days in April, but people who want to help the less fortunate eat healthily can still volunteer and have the chance to earn some Missoula-grown fruits and vegetables themselves.
“We want everybody to be healthy,” said Tim Hall, Missoula’s community garden director. He said he believes everyone should have the same access to fresh food, regardless of income.
Two of the sites, River Road Community Garden and Orchard Garden, each produce food for the Poverello Center and the Missoula Food Bank.
Greg Price, organizer of River Road Community Garden, said that farming in these neighborhood gardens can be difficult, mostly because the work is done by volunteers with scattered schedules.
“It’s a little trickier than just farming,” he said. “Sometimes you’re out here by yourself.”
Hall said volunteers often get food in exchange for their work.
“I’d call it pretty righteous food,” he said.
Volunteer schedules and contact information for Missoula’s community gardens can be found on their Web site at http://www.gardencityharvest.org.
Those who want to grow on their own can lease one of over 220 individual plots in the network for $25 per growing season plus a $15 refundable clean-up deposit, which includes all the tools, water and manure needed to raise homegrown fare on a 225-square-foot plot.
The rental system allows low-income families to meet their own needs for eating healthily.
And the rules aren’t many, Hall said. “We require all of the folks who garden with us to practice organic methods.”
Gardeners are prohibited from using chemical sprays created in a laboratory.
He said opening day for the next season of plot registration usually falls around the first week in April, weather permitting.
Those with current plots are given the opportunity to renew their space and all plots thereafter are rented to those first in line.
jeff.osteen@umontana.edu