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Growing Healthy Garden Program

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North Adams, MA
Growing Healthy Garden Program

Jennifer Munoz facilitates school and community gardens in 13-15 locations. Programming is free and open to people of all ages/abilities.

06/30/2024

Here are some of the River St/UNO Garden Club members celebrating the work that Williams College Reunion Class 1984 did in the garden! They rescued and transplanted blueberry bushes which are now happily producing berries. A HUGE thank you from our Garden Club and visitors who will enjoy the blueberry harvest!

02/14/2024

Look at these gorgeous shallots! Thank you to James King of Cambridge NY who donated hundreds of these to the program so we can try growing them this season. Can't wait to see what happens with this "mystery vegetable of the year"!

07/09/2023

What a strange and challenging garden season it has been thus far: the majority of the plants got shredded, crushed, frozen or drowned during that horrible hailstorm this spring. Now we've had sooooo much rain and heat for the past few weeks. Even so, the harvests are starting to ripen and we look forward to seeing the food that the school and community gardens produce for our community! Nature wants to live, in spite of all the curveballs. Happy gardening!

05/10/2023

Look at these cabbage and collard seedlings enjoying their first introduction to early morning sunshine and the big, wide world. Wish I could know what they are "feeling"!

03/29/2023

Here we are at the beginning of a new garden season! I am scurrying to touch base with teachers, neighborhood leaders and agency professionals to get all the spring tasks completed so we can plant!!! On this gorgeous sunny day, I look forward to gardening with the community to achieve a bountiful harvest. Happy Spring and Happy Gardening, everyone!

04/30/2021

Whoa, check out our friends at NA Tree & Landscape, cleaning up the UNO Community Garden tree line for FREE in honor of Arbor Day! Thank you James and Bret for taking out invasive trees, making mulch and additional seating, and letting more sunlight onto our garden beds. You guys are the heroes of the day!

04/05/2021

Happy Spring! I am cautiously optimistic that I will be able to garden more normally this season at most of my program garden locations! Of course, covid remains in charge....but it looks like Brayton Elementary will run an in-person summer program; I can garden at the Youth Center in Cheshire with a select pod of youth; I will be an outdoor internship team leader again for MA Youth Works using Drury High School garden as the internship location; South40 youth groups at the Brien Center will walk to area gardens to assist me with maintenance until they can be transported by car; River St and UNO Community Gardens will run as normal with their high level of covid safety compliance; some 4-H youth will assist with the Berkshire Food Project garden this year; and I ***should*** be able to garden in most of the other neighborhoods where there is lower covid safety compliance once I get vaccinated. Of course, there are always curve balls: only 10 days after MCLA students helped me start program seedlings, I had to remove the seedlings from the campus greenhouse and bring them home with me, since the campus is closing due to a covid outbreak. Bummed for the students, freaking out a bit about the 250+ seedlings that have taken over my house! In any event, it is feeling more like spring every minute, and soon I will be gardening in some capacity, in some locations, with some of my favorite people! If you need to contact me, the quickest route is with e-mail since I only periodically update this FP page. [email protected]. Be well, everyone! :)

08/02/2020

Hello, garden friends! I realize that I haven't posted updates in a while....life has been so very strange for all of us, with lots of changes to my usual summer gardening schedule. I was unable to use the MCLA greenhouse to start seedlings, so I did my best at home. It was like a jungle in here for weeks! I am able to garden with folks at the River St and UNO Community Gardens with good safety compliance, but I have not been able to hold Garden Clubs in many other neighborhoods since people are not being compliant. So, I solo-planted gardens in Brayton Hill and Tunnel Brook and a strong leader in each place takes care of the garden with only occasional support from me. The Youth Center and the NA Public Library Garden Programs were canceled, as was work with the youth in the Brien Center's South40 Program. To include the school garden in the Virtual Summer Camp at Brayton Elementary as usual, I have been taping very short YouTube videos that you can find at this link: NAPS Garden YouTube Link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQg8nYTnZTmxJvzM7k1FkQ?view_as=subscriber. You can check back periodically as we hope to continue to add more. Also, I was selected by MA Youth Works Program to be an outdoor internship location using the Drury Garden. You can find out more about this cool opportunity for paid internships for youth at Berkshire Trade & Commerce, August edition page 16: btaconline.com. Gardening is so healing during these uncertain times, and the harvests that we are picking are nourishing our souls and not just our bodies. I hope that all of you are healthy and reasonably happy, and that better times will come sooner rather than later!

05/11/2020

Good morning, my garden friends! I have a few updates that you might like to know. The Mayor and Health Department gave me permission to garden with the River St and UNO Community Gardens (City properties) using safety precautions and rotating very small groups of participants during our time at the gardens....start date TBA. I will refresh with composted manure the Brayton Elementary beds this week with mini-grant funding that will also include supporting our local farmers with 3rd-grade drawn pictures for their social media outreach. Both the NA library and the NB Youth Center are making summer program plans that include gardening as usual, assuming we will be able to gather in about 6 weeks time. I will plant and care for the Berkshire Food Project garden until such a time as they can safely welcome their volunteers back to resume cooking and gardening duties. South40 youth groups at the Brien Center are really hopeful that they can care for gardens with me this summer. Still up in the air: Drury garden will not be planted unless I get confirmation about a summer program there. I am working with subsidized neighborhood management groups to see if there is a way to garden together safely, but if not, I will plant and maintain those gardens solo, and residents will harvest by themselves when the veggies are ready. On the home front: woodchuck=0, Jen=1 Be well, everyone! :)

04/14/2020

A HUGE shout out to the Stamford Seed Savers who lent me some trays and a double grow light....I am not able to use the MCLA greenhouse this year so I have started a few seedlings at home. This loaner augments my own grow light and heat mats. Most of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have sprouted, along with some flowers and assorted herbs. It feels good to have some seedlings growing in these uncertain times. Hope you are all well and enjoying life in unexpected and new ways!

03/23/2020

Good morning, my garden friends. As you know, so much normal activity has been suspended for an unknown amount of time to try to curtail the spread of covid-19. With public schools and colleges closed, and social distancing advised, my spring program work has ground to a halt. MCLA is in the process of determining if I can still have access to their campus greenhouse to grow seedlings without students, which I hope to do in case gardens can get planted later this season in some fashion. It is not yet clear if schools will have summer programs, or if we will be able to move freely in neighborhoods for gardening purposes, so I will keep you posted when I know more. In the meantime, I am attending webinars on food security, and calling neighborhood leaders and creating planting maps for each garden location as I typically would. I miss interacting with folks to get the gardens ready for planting, but I am even more concerned about others missing the nutrition, gentle exercise, and social interaction that gardening together offers. May you and yours remain healthy and in good spirits!

05/04/2019

Exciting news: we were able to plant at the new UNO Garden this morning! In addition to the garlic we planted last fall, we now also have several rhubarb plants and an entire bed of asparagus (both green and purple varieties). Can't wait to see how these new beds turn out, and keep your eyes peeled for the hops vines that will be climbing up the wooden trellis structure! More goodies to be planted as weather warms.....

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North Adams, MA
01247

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+14136638131

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