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GARDEN
in the Idaho Springs Triangle near where Colorado Boulevard and Miner Street intersect on the east side of the city. e garden closed in 2016 as the city started the third phase of the Colorado Boulevard reconstruction, and it reopened in its new location in spring 2020.
With some minor tweaking, Slaymaker said, the garden operated during the pandemic.
How it works e Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District has a plot that is used by the children its Kids Korner camp. e kids walk to the garden to pull weeds and straighten up the area, plus they help tend to the plot.
Scraps-to-Soil rents plots with three sizes available: 4’x8’ for $100, 4’x12’ for $150 and 4’x16’ for $200.
Previous renters have rst dibs on getting plots the following year, and Slaymaker said she believes someone has kept a plot since the garden opened in 2011.
“We always do our best to have some scholarship funding available because we don’t want a ordability to be a barrier to the garden,” Slaymaker said.
She said several plots usually open each year, primarily because people leave the area.
No pesticides or herbicides are allowed in the garden.
One of the biggest assets in the garden, Slaymaker said, is that all of the plots are irrigated. Normally in the summer — aside from the last two months of rain — plots are watered regularly, which allows Scrapsto-Soil to conserve water.
“We recognize a lot of people don’t have access to a yard,” Cruzalegui said. “ ey live up a mountain or in an apartment. is way it’s easy for them to have a plot without having to show up every day.”
Cruzalegui said community is truly part of the community garden, with the new spot funded by grants, private donations and many volunteer hours.
Other amenities ere’s also a tool shed — a recy- cled building from Loveland Ski Area – with tools that people can borrow for gardening and construction. e location has a crevice garden that shows gardeners another type of gardening that works at high altitudes, a pollinator plot that brings in bees, and a strawberry plot that is outside the fenced-in garden, and anyone is welcome to the fruit.
“If people need tools, we’re happy to let them borrow them,” Cruzalegui said.
“We are hoping that slowly but surely we’ll be able to raise awareness of the bene ts of growing your own healthy food and other options on your own property,” Cruzalegui said.
