What a wonderful meeting we had last Thursday! We were very lucky to have 3 tour guides of the gardens and learn about the many exciting programs happening at Troy Community Garden.

Laurel Norris is working on the raised bed project at Troy Gardens. This year they have built 4 beds of varying heights for people with disabilities. An individual and their family and/or friends have adopted 3. 1 remains a sort of community bed that everyone picks from. Laurel said that it is a big success! Some of the challenges she has run into include transportation to and from the garden, lack of wheelchair access from the road to the beds and finding gardeners.

The site where the beds are now is only temporary. Troy Gardens would like to move the raised bed area over for wheelchair access in a few years when a parking lot will be put in.

Dan Durica, coordinator for the Community Gardens, talked to us about some of the history of Troy Gardens and some of the plans they have for fencing of the gardens. Right now they have some rascally deer coming in and nibbling off some produce!

Sharon Lezberg, executive director of Friends of Troy Gardens, told us about the kids garden area. It is complete with a bean tunnel and sunflower castle! They have kids from some of the neighboring community centers and schools come out for gardening and environmental education programs. They kid's garden as well as doing arts and crafts projects. This area will be moved as well in a couple of years. They hope to get intergenerational activities started in the future.

Sharon also showed us the Edible Garden that was created by interns and students from Shabazz High School. This is a very beautiful garden that is shaped like to snakes coming together.

Troy Garden is also working on a prairie restoration project with Urban Open Space Foundation. The plan is to use continual tilling as a method of eradicating exotic weeds (they want to stay organic if possible) then plant in the fall.

Troy also operates a Community Supported Agriculture program, where people buy shares and receive weekly boxes of fresh produce. The farm also has a farm stand 2 nights a week where people can come to the garden and buy fresh veggies.

The farm is also working on a program called Farm and Field with 14-17 year olds. Students get paid and work about 15 hours a week learning about sustainable growing.

In attendance was:

Amy Hoyt 770-0976, she is interested in gardening with special needs children

Sandy Miller smiller@... WI Youth Company

Betsy Giles gilesea@...

Deb Allen focuscorp1@... Focuscorps

Ginger Ganser gingerg@... United Cerebral Palsy

Sharon Lezberg troygardens@... Friends of Troy Garden

Dan Durica troycommunitygardens@... Friends of Troy Garden

Rick Brooks rbrooks@... UW-Health Promotion Project

Susan Boldt kbolt@... Seed to Supper program

Teresa Shroeder focuscorp1@... Focuscorps

Stephanie Zabler stephanie.zabler@... Breaburn Court

Ashleigh Ross growedibleflowers@... Community Action Coalition

Beth Holtzman mountainhuckleberry@... Community Action Coalition