Cortez Southside Neighborhood Digs Community Garden

A new community garden will soon be sprouting local produce in South Cortez. You’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by The Timbers at Edgemont Highlands and TruWest Auto in Cortez. I’m Wendy Graham Settle. The Common Ground Community Garden at the Cortez Recreation Center has become so popular during its four years of cultivation that gardeners who want to get dirt under their fingernails have had to wait until a plot opens up, until now. The Good Samaritan Center Food Pantry which operates the community garden plans to offer 12 plots in a second community garden, located in a neighborhood pocket park located at 517 East Third Street between Harrison and Park. Food Pantry Director Kirby Foster said about a thousand dollars already has been raised, but additional donations are needed to build the garden beds, install irrigation and erect a fence to keep critters out. Foster says she hopes to get seeds in the ground as soon as possible. The City of Cortez will provide the irrigation water for the plots. A good deal if you can’t afford a big water bill to sustain your own backyard garden. The Common Ground Community Garden not only provides fresh, healthy food for gardeners and their families. Gardeners donate excess produce to the Food Pantry, a Godsend during the pandemic.

The main reason that I really want to see this happen is one, as a Director of the Food Pantry, when COVID hit we saw firsthand how fragile the food system is and people suffered for it. And the Community Garden was the only reason we actually had fresh produce to distribute. And I want my neighbors here, I live down here, and I want us all to be able to create connections with each other so that if something happens we have a network of people that we can rely on, but we can also grow our own food and have healthy food access right here. Something really cool happens when you’re doing that kind of work next to somebody. And I think we all really need that right now.

If you’d like to volunteer in the Community Garden, make a donation to the new garden in South side or register for a plot, visit commongroundcortez.org. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I’m Wendy Graham Settle.

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