Thanksgiving.

On this day and everyday we are thankful to our hard working board members, volunteers and community partners! Thanks from Planting Communities for help us grow.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to the people in and of Paris. PC sends you our condolences and wishes to give you some strength in dark times.

Thank you all!!!

Good morning all...here's a note from Brad ~ "I received an email from MAPS Credit Union that we are receiving the grant thanks to all of your votes. Please know that Ian and I are humbled and grateful for your support and that we hope this will help get our After School Club gardening back again. Please thank all that you contacted and tell them how much we appreciate their effort. Monday evening we will receive the award and know that we will be thinking of you!
Grateful-
~Brad"

Last day to vote!

This is a reminder that today is the last day to vote for Planting Communities as a finalist in the Maps Community Challenge Award. Help us out by spreading the word or texting "C" to 503 - 406 - 2242!
Thanks for all your votes and supporting local organizations!

Vote for us, Planting Communities in the Maps Community Challenge Award!

We were accepted as one of the finalist for the MAPS Community Challenge Award. We are dependent on your voting for us to be winners and recipients of this award. Thus, you can help us make a difference locally by voting for us. The information is as follows.  Voting is open until October 23rd. To vote, text “C” to 503-406-2242. You can also check out the Maps Credit Union Facebook site to like our video there. Thank you all for your support!

Finally some good news...

We are proud to announce that we are now finalist in the MAPS Community Challenge Award! Thanks to Brad Agenbroad we have been selected for this amazing opportunity to not only improve our work through possible financial support but also spread the word. Much of how we do will depend on you, the public for helping vote us in. Stay tuned to see when and how to vote for us via the MAPS Facebook and website.

Thanks Brad and thanks to all of the others who support us!

Today unfortunate events...

Our condolences go out to the families and victims of today's tragic event at the Umpqua Community College. Damage to one is damage to all. However, together with love and hope we all can heal. We send you ours.

More mobile gardens!

San Juana came by to help finish up the mobile gardens! Awesome work! Just some plants and we are done. The two new ones will be a fall garden examples (for the most part)!

Mobile Gardens!!!

Mobile gardens! It has been a goal of our for some while now, but thanks to Lexi and Victoria from the Marion Polk Food Share it has become a reality. A huge shout out to those two!

A big Thank you to MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility!

This is a very belated thank you to the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility for growing and donating plants to our organization!

It's about thyme siletz get to gardening!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers day to all those amazing moms out there!

Youth Garden Educator Workshop

Thanks Marion-Polk Food Share for the hosting the Youth Garden Educator Workshop! We were glad to be a part of it and thankful that you included us. Good work! We made some great connections and got to work with some amazing folks today! Happy gardening and educating y'all!

Next adventure and a new collaboration.

Last Friday we toured the Parrish Middle School Garden to see how they do their hydroponic and aquaponic systems. We toured this with the After School Club Coordinator, Karen and the head of the Future Farmers of America(FFA) Program in Woodburn, Seth. We are choosing this route as our next adventure and as well as to collaborate with Karen and the Seth on this project for our schools and community. Stay tuned...

PS. Thanks to the security guard for talking with us and letting us in as well as Aaron for giving us a quick run down.  

The goods!

Brad is showing off some of the goods we received from the Whole Kids Foundation. Thanks Whole Foods for choosing our French Prairie School Garden as one of the recipients of your grant.

Whole Kids garden grant!

Well it's official...Brad received the box and info...Our French Prairie MS/Lincoln elementary school garden received the Whole Foods Garden Grant! We got the good news in late January but got some of the good delivered last week and made our first purchases with the funds. 

Thanks Whole Foods for giving us this great push forward and helping us help our students!

Just saying...

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Easter holiday!

Cesar Chavez Day shout out!

A huge shout out to all the AmeriCorp volunteers, Danielle, Rachel, and the Confluence Environmental Center for today's amazing work. More than we can imagine got done! Everyone was super positive, active and hard-working. Thanks to their great work our gardens are getting off to a great start. We hope they learned as much from us as we did from them.
We cannot thank you enough.
Here are a couple pictures from one of the gardens today. More to come, so stay tuned.

The Americorp are coming, quick grab your shovels!

In honor of Cesar Chavez Day, Portland Americorp Volunteers are coming to help out Planting Communities. We are going to have a busy day of earth moving, garden making and learning going on! From green-roofs to garden beds, we are doing it all.

Stay tuned for pics and updates...

Happy World Book Day - March 6th

Happy World Book Day! Here is a short list of some of our favorite gardening reads.

For kids:
"Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table" - Jaqueline Briggs Martin
"The Curious Garden" - Peter Brown

For Adults:
"Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" - Steve Solomon
"Gaia's Garden" - Toby Hemenway
"Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants for Garden and Landscapes" - K. Robson, A. Richter, and M. Filbert.

Enjoy them! Let us know your favorite garden reads.

MLK service day 2015!

Thanks to all the Corban University students who volunteered for the MLK service day back in January. The garden almost doubled in size and got a well needed clean-up. Another school garden got a fresh layer of woodchips and soil.

By the end of the day two school gardens were beautified from the hard work of these hard-working students. Once again we thank you so much!

Getting ready.

Designing the new garden space.

Filling the beds.

Our local handy man touching up the old beds.

The final touches to the new addition.

Brad, our fearless garden coordinator! 

This is how we roll!

A beautiful finish to an amazing day.

Thanks again Corban University for your service and hard work! Hope to see you all again.

Garden to table, the first round.

Back in October Maestra Peynado grew a whole bunch of Kale in her school garden bed. She and her students got it served up in the middle school cafeteria! Thanks to her, her students and the awesome lunch ladies we got some kids to eat some greens.

Coming back....

Hello all our dear readers!

We have taken a small break from the blog but our Facebook was going strong. We have decided to update our blog with a flood of old stories (not too many) and also some upcoming events. In a way it is sort of like our new years resolution to keep the blog up-to-date.

We appreciate you checking in with us on our site. Hope to hear from you soon and see you in one or more garden spots.

Sincerely,

The folks at Planting Communities