Square Foot Garden Class
A key component of Nashville’s Growing Healthy Communities Initiative is to increase access to locally-grown, fresh produce by development of community and home gardens. Nashville Demonstration Organic Garden (NDOG) volunteers implemented the . “You-Can-Do-It” square-foot garden (SFG) workshops and demonstrations to address two key stumbling blocks for developing new gardens: (1) the knowledge required to grow produce, and (2) the labor required to maintain a traditional garden. In 2016 and 2017, Blue and You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas funded a series of square-foot garden workshops, conducted by NDOG volunteer Rita Rector, which have resulted in more than 75 SFG’s throughout the community, two gardens at a local retirement center and nursing home, Nashville Elementary School’s school garden curriculum and several demonstration SFG beds at local businesses NDOG volunteers plan to add additional demonstration beds at businesses and other visible locations throughout the community in 2018 and will be conducting free training for anyone interested in learning about square-foot-gardening.