May 2019 - Present We officially opened the new garden at Green Street Park with a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 18, 2019. During the inaugural year and in 2020 we rented all 43 garden beds and had bountiful harvests. Ridgway's middle school students helped us start to compost in fall 2019 and by fall 2020 we were thrilled to amend the beds with rich compost. We will be building seven more beds in 2021 and breaking ground on the Children's Area. We appreciate the labor of community volunteers that helped us build the garden, our partnership with Town of Ridgway, and support of our umbrella organization Southwest Institute for Resilience. Fall 2018 - Spring 2019 The first phase of the new garden construction began in late 2018 with installation of a perimeter wildlife fence and a gravel parking area. In the spring, we put in the irrigation system, main pathway, information kiosk, tool shed, and 43 raised beds. We are very thankful for the partnership with Ridgway Secondary School shop class students who constructed all of the raised beds for us! We are also grateful to numerous volunteers and Town staff who helped us prepare the site and build various garden components. 2016 - 2018 We spent a couple of seasons designing the garden and fundraising for its construction. Initially, we hoped to build out the entire 1.1 acre of RCG and collaborated with Town on a GOCO grant that would have also secured funds for key infrastructure of the new Green Street Park. When the grant request was declined, RCG decided to proceed with a phased approach and initially develop a 0.5 acre portion of the area allocated to RCG. 2014 - 2016 Under the leadership of Chris Lance, the RCG Planning Committee worked closely with the Town of Ridgway to identify a permanent home for a new community garden. An area off of Green Street was identified and upon completion of a community wide planning process, RCG was approved to lease a 1.1 acre parcel within the Town's future Green Street Park. 2009 - 2014 Colorado State Extension Service and the Master Gardener Program got involved with the garden and started organizing. The garden membership grew from 6 members in 2009 to 40 in 2014. The original RCG was located on private land on North Laura Street until 2014 when the property was sold. During these years, the garden was both a Share and Rental Garden. Share members gardened cooperatively in small teams to grow produce that was harvested and shared among the Share Group. Members who rented individual beds tended to their own plots but participated in collective garden maintenance and events. 2007 - 2009 The original community garden was started by a handful of gardeners in Ridgway and was located on private property on the corner of North Laura and Charles Streets. The land was donated by Liza Ortman who very generously put in the water tap and erected deer fencing around the property. Tomten Farm & Institute of Telluride (now Southwest Institute for Resilience) was the umbrella non-profit and fiscal agent for the RCG.
