The Community Garden Project has given out over ninety garden boxes

October 7, 2016

Mikhail Sundust

Gila River Indian News

The Community Garden Project is giving out raised garden beds at no charge to Community members to encourage agriculture education and healthy eating. The program is also offering classes for new or hopeful gardeners in coming weeks.

Sonny Nieto, who helps run the Community Garden Project, said the program has already handed out nearly 90 garden boxes, and plans to order more next month.

The raised garden beds are approximately 3-feet wide by 4-feet long. They stand about 3-feet tall and the bed is 10-inches deep, holding almost 9-cubic feet of potting soil. The best part is, they are easy to assemble and require no tools.

Raised garden beds are great for someone who wants to learn to garden, but does not have a lot of open land. They are also useful for the elderly or those who have trouble getting down and back up again.

Bob Sotomayor is a life-long agriculturalist and volunteer with the Community Garden Project. According to him, crops planted in the winter need a full day’s sunlight, so be sure to place your garden box on the southern side of your house, or an open area where the vegetables can see the sun from dawn till dusk.

In a new video for GRTV News, Nieto, Sotomayor and Project Manager Norman Wellington dish out gardening advice for anyone with a new garden box. View it online at www.gricnews.org or www.vimeo.com/gric.

Nieto said the garden boxes are on back-order for now, but more will be available soon.

In the meantime, the team is leading a gardening training series over three weekends, each at different district service centers: District 6 on Oct. 22, District 5 on Nov. 5, and District 2 on Nov. 12.

All classes are 8 a.m. to noon.

Everyone is welcome to come learn.