Knowledgebase
Micro-Grants for educational garden space on church property #857495
Asked January 17, 2024, 8:33 PM EST
Hey Extension! My name is Jake and I'm a Ag student at UMass Amherst. I'm helping a family friend plan out a garden for educational purposes as well as some food production for a nearby food pantry. He wants to have 10-12 dwarf to semi-dwarf fruit trees (peaches, plums, crabapples, apples, etc) as well as a small amount of viticulture on the property. Overall it is less than 1 acre of land, but it is very diversified and he uses sustainable soil health practices. I've already looked at Western SARE but I've had no luck finding anything that we could use. We should not need more than 10,000$ for this project, and that is a very very generous estimate for how much we will need. What are some good resources for microgrants in the area for this kind of thing?
Arapahoe County Colorado
Expert Response
Here are some resources for you to consider:
- Colorado Garden Foundation
- Denver Urban Gardens
- American Public Gardens Association -- they have a variety of grant programs available. Check them all out including the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program.
- GrowingSpaces has a list of a variety of grant opportunities from different organizations.
- Blooming Prairie Foundation
Here are some additional education resources:
- Growing Tree Fruit in Colorado
- Tree fruit resources
- Backyard Orchard: Stone Fruits fact sheet
- Varieties of fruit trees that grow well in Colorado (look at A or B ratings)
- Tree planting, pruning, and care resources
- All garden topics (fact sheets and more)
- CSU Extension's Grow & Give program
- Viticulture resources
Classes, webinars, and events:
- Free gardening webinars (live and recorded classes; I recommend using Control “F” to search for keywords): https://csuhort.blogspot.com/p/csu-extension-spring-gardening-webinars.html
- Local, Arapahoe County Extension events: https://arapahoe.extension.colostate.edu/events-and-programs/
- Arapahoe County Horticulture services: https://arapahoe.extension.colostate.edu/horticulture/our-services/
- Arapahoe County Master Gardener info: https://arapahoe.extension.colostate.edu/colorado-master-gardener/
- Green School (formal garden/horticulture training specifically for Colorado): https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/certified-colorado-gardener/
- CO-Horts Blog (written by horticulture staff around Colorado; search for keyword for topics): https://csuhort.blogspot.com/
Lisa
Lisa Mason
Horticulture Specialist, Arapahoe County
Colorado State University Extension
