Garden Goodness!

Community Garden Receives Fiskars Grant

Montrose Community Garden volunteers will be using $1,500 worth of high-quality Fiskars gardening tools in the community garden this year. They will also be able to spend $1,000 on garden-related materials (i.e. green goods) for use in the garden or other beautification projects in Montrose.

Since 2003, Project Orange ThumbSM has funded over 100 community projects with more than $200,000. Project Orange ThumbSM is a grant program that provides community garden groups with the tools and materials they need to reach their goals for neighborhood beautification and horticulture education. This year there were over 1,000 applicants.

Montrose was one of 20 recipients selected nationwide. The application process included a written portion submitted online, and a creative element. Volunteers worked together to submit a quilt wall hanging. Some of the quilt’s squares were made from photos of the town’s community gardeners either working in the garden or distributing vegetables from the garden to Montrose-area residents. It was felt that the photo quilt strongly represented the sense of community we experience while gardening together.

The Fiskars organization will, in the upcoming months, organize a ribbon-cutting ceremony. They will also ask recipients to participate in a blog with photos and updates.
A list of the recipients from 2009 and previous years is available at the Project Orange ThumbSM web site www.fiskars.com. The Montrose Community garden was started in 2007 as part of our town’s participation in the Horizon’s program. Located just east of the Central Farmers elevator in town, numerous residents volunteer their time and sweat planting, weeding, and picking produce which they make available to the community for free-will donations during the growing season.