Whats Up in Windsor by Teresa Mariani Hendrix — March 2020
Plans for the future of downtown Windsor have been in the news a lot lately, but there’s one feature of the Windsor Town Green scheduled to stay the same: The Windsor Town Green Community Garden.
Nestled in the corner of Windsor Road and Joe Rodota Drive, the garden has grown to 72 beds over the past 11 years. The nonprofit Windsor Garden Club manages the garden on land belonging to the Town of Windsor.
WGC rents the garden’s raised beds for $40 to $65 a year, depending on size. There are even wheelchair accessible “back friendly” raised beds available. All of the beds offer drip irrigation and gopher-wire lining (yes, we have gophers there too, sadly). The garden is organic; gardeners must agree to use only natural fertilizers and pest-management techniques – no chemicals, pesticides or herbicides allowed. Renters must also perform 6 hours of volunteer work per year maintaining the common areas of the garden. There’s always some raking and weeding to be done in an organic garden.
The raised garden plots are available for rental to anyone who lives within the Town of Windsor. The 72 beds are generally full everyyear. In keeping with WGC’s mission to bring the joy of gardening to everyone, 22 of the 72 beds are provided at no cost to low-income Windsor residents. Local businesses and individuals donate the rental fee for those beds so that low-income families have a place to grow food and enjoy the beauty of the garden. WGC also rents three large beds at a discounted rate to the local Windsor Service Alliance for its food bank.
Working with the garden club, Windsor High School’s bridges program brings special needs students to the garden twice a week during the school year. The students learn how to plant, tend and grow vegetables and herbs for the food bank.
It’s all a far cry from the weed-covered lot Windsor Garden Club founders began improving back in 2009.
But now the garden needs some help. The recycled wood originally used to create the garden beds 11 years ago is now disintegrating. All 72 beds will need to be dug up, and the old wood carted off and replaced with new wood and gopher wire. Then the soil will need to be returned to the beds.
The entire project is expected to cost approximately $44,000 -- $20,000 of that in wood alone. Windsor Garden Club is currently seeking grants and donations to cover the cost of wood and labor – and also seeking donations of labor. The club has set up a “GoFundMe” account at www.gofundme.com/f/windsor-garden-club.
The club hopes to accomplish the bed-rebuild project in four phases over the next four years. Ten of the beds will be rebuilt in April. Work starts on Feb. 29, when the Windsor High School Lacrosse teams – boys and girls – show up to dig out beds 1-10. (Beds 1-20 are the original, and oldest, raised beds in the garden.)
If you know of a group, organization or business that can help the garden club with the project, please contact officers@windsorgardenclub.org . To find out more about the community garden, visit: www.windsorgardenclub.org/community-garden.
In other news
The Windsor Dia de los Muertos Committee is busy fundraising for this year’s free celebrations in October, this time under the nonprofit umbrella of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce. The 2019 Viva los Muertos celebration was cancelled due to the fire and evacuations. The group is aiming to bring the celebration back bigger than ever in 2020. The free Mexican Sugar Skull workshop for children will be back, this time in the Huerta Gymnasium, date TBA. The big Viva los Muertos celebration is set for Saturday Oct. 24. To pay for both events, the Dia de los Muertos Committee is looking for sponsors and individual donors.
The committee is holding a kickoff fundraising dinner Saturday, March 21 at Tu Mole Madre, hosted by the Diaz Brothers of Tu Mole Madre along with Latino vintners Aldina Vineyards, Enriquez Estate Wines, Guerrero Fernandez Wines and Rojas Vineyards. The evening will feature a four-course food & wine pairing, raffle, auctions and music. Tickets range from $150 per person to $1,500 per table of four to $2,500 for a table for eight. For details and tickets, visit www.windsormuertos.com
To find out more about the event and its history, visit The Windsor El Dia de Los Muertos Facebook page: .
