The Community Garden and Garden to Heal Program lives at the Matanuska Experiment Farm & Extension Center (MEFEC) in Palmer. This program provides community members opportunities for hands-on practical gardening experience by providing garden plots with initial tilling, water, basic garden tools, educational classes, CES publications. Community gardeners will also have access to people with expertise who can help with planning your garden, soil health, pest management and planting tips.
Community
The Community Gardens are offered to the community at a minimal fee and to non-profit organizations for free. There are no restrictions on what can be grown as long as it is legal. Several non-profits are currently gardening in our plots: The Village of Gambell, Frontline Mission, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and a Junior Master Gardener program. Several families are using garden plots to grow produce, some of which goes to help others in their communities.
We work to put the "Community" in our community gardens by encouraging all of the gardeners to get to know and assist each other when needed. To help foster this community, we create opportunities for gardeners to meet. These include group planting and harvesting days, a potluck mid-season, and some other educational gatherings throughout the season. One example of community at work is when people helped water their fellow gardeners' plots when we had limited watering hours.
2024 Upgrades
Through a 2024 Community Food Security Through Gardening grant awarded by the Alaska Community Foundation, we are expanding and improving the community gardens! We are building additional plots plus six accessible beds built to be accessed from a sitting or standing position. We are working to add composting bins, additional tools, an upgraded watering system, seeds available for planting and more! We will also be providing honoraria for experts, tuition for master gardener registration and scholarships to 4-H youth participating in the community gardens.
