Below are examples of community garden projects in Denver, CO. Do any of you know of youth organizations in Denver or other cities who might want to incorporate community gardening into their tutoring/mentoring? Contact David Braden, or submit your link on this web site.
The Golden Garden - see more like this at this link
Tue, 09/01/2009 - 10:56am — David Braden
 The Golden Garden is a plot in the Golden Community Garden. David Braden and David Ward worked with the organizing committee to attempt to include a permaculture section that would be open to all participants but the committee elected to go with the traditional community garden model.
Organic Landscape Design rented a 10' x 20' plot for $75.00 and a commitment to spend 4 hours per month contributing to the common areas of the garden. 3/4 of the plot has been sheet mulched - leaving one quarter unmulched to show the layers. The garden did not open for gardening until May 30 and the soil was unamended clay. A simple drip system was installed and the fully mulched half of the bed was planted.
 The bed was planted with the herbs for a kitchen garden . . . oregano, sage, tarragon, chives, mint, thyme, parsley . . . and then some tomato plants . . . later in the year some iris was added . . .
(right click on pictures to view image)
Participating in the Golden garden is about changing the aesthetics of lawns. It is about showing people that gardening need not be a time consuming - labor intensive - activity. It is about those who would like to do something to help the planet but think that gardening is too much work.
For comparison, here is an example of a garden based on extensive inputs:
This is a beautiful garden and it is producing quality food - there is nothing wrong with wanting to do that. The point is that this garden is based on annual inputs of imported materials. The permaculture approach is to use nature's processes to build soil in place - we feed the soil and the soil feeds the plants. Our input costs are minimal and yet, the tomatoes grown in the permaculture bed are thriving better than the tomatoes grown in the bed with extensive inputs.
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