Many hands make light work
Carol Planchon, treasurer of Shared Harvest Community Gardens, works in the new garden beds on Wednesday morning at the community garden in Coeur d'Alene. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Nancy Mills, left, president of Shared Harvest Community Garden in Coeur d'Alene, and Jodi Foutch, vice president — donation garden, work in the garden on Wednesday to prepare for a community spring cleaning on Sunday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Volunteers are needed on Sunday to help with spring cleaning at Shared Harvest Community Garden, a nonprofit garden in Coeur d'Alene. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Shared Harvest Community Garden is in need of volunteers for their spring cleanup on Sunday.
“Having the benefit of many hands means we can do the work in a shorter period of time,” said Nancy Mills, the new president of the nonprofit since February. “In spring, we have a lot of work to do to prepare the garden.”
The garden was founded in 2008 by Kim Normand on property owned by Marshall and Dolly Mend, on 10th Street and Foster Avenue in Coeur d’Alene. It operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Inland Northwest Community Gardens.
On Sunday, volunteers are needed to spread a new layer of wood chips in the aisleways, clean up the Xeriscape border, prune perennials, weed and more.
“There are a lot of people in this town that love Shared Harvest, so we’re expecting a good turnout,” Mills said.
Mills said this year they’ll also be looking for help to move soil to 50 new planter boxes. She said the garden board is very excited to have completed the replacement of all the planter boxes in the last few weeks, working through the snow and rain.
“It was truly a labor of love, and now that it’s near complete, we’re thrilled to be able to gaze at the beautifully aligned boxes, all level and ready for plants,” Mills said. "To say the least, we feel blessed to have been able to replace all boxes with beautiful new lumber, all thanks to people who care about the garden."
Mills said they can’t express enough how thankful they are for all the support they received to fund the project through their GoFundMe, as well as a lumber donation through the Idaho Forest Group.
After the cleanup on Sunday, Mills said they will offer orientations to those interested in using a planter box for this growing season and assign boxes based on availability. She said there is a significant waitlist for planter boxes this year as a result of having the new boxes.
Plot rentals are $25 a season and owners are asked to donate half their produce to the food bank. One hundred percent of the produce from the big garden is donated, and since opening 14 years ago, the garden has provided over 60,000 pounds of produce to food banks.
Sunday’s spring cleaning will run from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves and a snack to share.
