Growing Together at Beacon Apartments

I’m Sharon Newman, Garden Coordinator for Chittenden County affordable housing, a partnership between VGN and Champlain Housing Trust (CHT). One site I have spent a lot of time at this season is Beacon, permanent housing for homeless residents, located in South Burlington. Back in March, as I did my pre-season check in, I noticed that the winter […]

Birth of a Giving Garden

By Gordon Clark, Coordinator, Vermont Victory Gardens Inspired by a Hunger Council meeting early in 2019, some residents in the Village of Barton, Vermont, close to the Canadian border in Orleans County, decided to build a few raised beds for local residents in need. There were no takers. Issues of time, experience, skills and tools […]

Regeneration Corps

A conversation with Mindy Blank, Executive Director, Community Resilience Organizations This actually gives me a lot of hope for the future because agriculture is something that can realistically be regenerative—obviously, it will take a lot of work for regenerative agriculture to become a common practice, but it can be done. Regeneration Corps participant from Sharon […]

Conscious Homestead – Winooski, VT

“I care about taking care of myself, about the earth, but also taking care of each other,”says Candice Taylor, a Winooski resident who is starting up a new community garden called Conscious Homestead in her backyard. The mission of the Conscious Homestead is to promote land based learning that centers and decolonizes our relationship to […]

Food Shelf Giving Gardens: Flipping the Narrative

Community gardens partnering with food shelves to determine what to grow and how to donate it is an essential step in getting fresh food to those who need it. In the Northeast Kingdom and the Mad River Valley, two food shelves are flipping that narrative by reaching out to their local communities to see what […]

Master Gardeners: A call to action

The UVM Extension Community Horticulture Program (Master Gardener & Composter) trains volunteers and uses research-based gardening information to help all Vermonters improve their gardening, leadership and environmental stewardship skills. How the program works:  After completing a 16-week online course, trainees become volunteer Interns.  To transition from an Intern to a Certified Master Gardener (EMG), trainees […]

A Community of Gardens Bloom

Stamford VT Seed Savers – Stamford, VT Helen Fields and her husband, Stephen Greene, are both long-time advocates and organizers for bringing gardens and garden-based education into the communities where they live and work. The couple’s most recent project is the Stamford VT Seed Savers, a local garden education program, growing and seed saving at […]

“Billow the Sails”

Malletts Bay Congregational Church – Colchester, VT Dan Dougherty had been trying to get his church to start a community garden on excess land the church owns for years, but unsuccessfully. “I had seen an article in Seven Days about Victory Gardens and it was like BAM! Most of our congregation will be able to […]

Planting Hope: Vermont Victory Gardens

Many people turned to gardening this season as a simple act of hope–to plant a seed is to bring life. Others sought out a new hobby to combat the idleness of this “pause” and commune in the great outdoors. And many more saw the potential of gardens to address freshly exposed realities, long-lived and new, […]

Improving Lands, Improving Lives

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with New Farms for New Americans!  Improving Lands, Improving Lives is a 3-year project to enhance and facilitate a comprehensive agriculture program on food systems, nutrition and a first-ever leadership and mentorship training program for new American farmers.  VCGN will work with NFNA and farmers enrolled in their program […]

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