Community garden organizers discuss community support, education

Mary Ann Piper, Missouri Valley Community Action Agency career services specialist, began the Community Garden Project meeting Tuesday, March 2, by giving updates on her contact with various persons and groups in the area.

Harold Clayton has a number of gardening items he said would be available to assist in readying the garden sites for planting, such as a tiller, starter plants, a spreader, a push plow and more, Piper reported.

If the city of Marshall does not ready the ground for gardening, "I think ... that he'll do that, because he said anything that he could do, he'd be glad to," Piper added.

Beginning Saturday, March 13, compost will be available at no cost at the city's compost area, located at 26523 245th Road, and Clayton has offered to spread it if the city delivers compost to the garden sites, said Piper.

There will be a plant sale at Marshall High School Tuesday and Wednesday, April 27 and 28, Piper said.

Some greenhouses may have plants to donate to the project, said MVCAA Community Development Manager Cheryl Zimny.

Marshall's Future Farmers of America group will plant flowers around the outside of garden beds, said Piper.

She also reported that representatives of People First of Missouri, Marshall Habilitation Center and PowerHouse Ministries have all expressed interest in having members, residents and youth -- in the case of PowerHouse Ministries -- involved in the community garden project.

Mark McRoberts addressed the issue of gardening education. He expressed opposition to the idea of printing extensive education materials, saying, "We've killed enough trees."

But, "There's an education process, because not every plot of ground in town is going to be (the same)," he said.

Master gardeners tend to do one-on-one education, said McRoberts.

Adam Hanson has sent soil samples from all but one possible garden site to a Columbia lab for analysis, he said.

Before gardening plots are assigned, he said, it is important that the foundations of old homes, if they are still present, be located and avoided.

McRoberts added that, if lead-based paint on a home was allowed to flake off, the ground nearest the foundation would be contaminated.

But, he said, the lead would "pretty well stay there," and there would be little danger of its spread.

McRoberts remarked on the provision banning the use of pesticides in gardens, asking if that only banned the amateur gardeners from their use. Others in the group agreed that their use should not be totally banned.

Qualifying participants will be given small hand tools and seeds, said Zimny. For this program, families at up to 200 percent of the poverty line will be eligible for these tools and seeds. A family of four can have as much as $40,000 in annual income and still qualify, she said.

The group discussed what seeds should be purchased, with McRoberts saying that it is very important to have quality seeds -- and equipment. Donated seeds may be last year's supply, and tools may be "rough."

With such seeds, gardeners may "put out a bunch of effort to plant this stuff, to weed around it and then to have basically 90 percent of it not even sprout," he said

"That would not be encouraging at all," agreed Piper.

McRoberts gave a few gardening tips to those present.

Instead of cutting a large potato into small pieces and planting those, he said, he prefers to use a whole small potato. If the potato's skin is intact, it prevents disease from affecting the potato.

Corn should be planted in a block, he said. Peas and beans should each be planted in two rows. This allows the plants to intertwine which makes them stronger.

Light activates weed seeds, said McRoberts, meaning that hoeing in the dark will result in fewer weeds than hoeing while the sun is overhead.

McRoberts will be available to answer gardening-related questions from 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays, he said. Those with questions should call the University of Missouri Extension Office at 660-886-6908 and ask for Linda, who will direct callers to McRoberts.

Piper will contact members of Marshall's city government to find out if the city will provide running water at the sites, she said.

"We need to know about that," she said.

The city of Marshall will provide liability insurance, said Zimny.

Besides Piper, Zimny, McRoberts and Hanson, Josh King, Jean Harms, Carol Miller and Tammy Harrelson were also present at the meeting.

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net