Dig deep

The buzz is out there — we can feel it. The snow is gone (finally!), the sun is shining, and people are itching to get outside and work in the garden. The Inland Northwest has always had a cadre of dedicated gardeners, but this year — thanks to the local/organic/sustainable food movement, growing health awareness, and concerns over the safety of industrial agriculture — even people whose thumbs are far from green are talking about digging in the dirt. After all, you can’t get much more local than a tomato grown in your own back yard.

Or in a community garden in your neighborhood. For instance, Coeur d’Alene’s first community garden, SHARED HARVEST, kicks off this weekend with a workday (9 am-noon), unveiling ceremony (2 pm) and plot sign-up day, Saturday, April 25 (weather permitting). The garden has taken over three formerly vacant city lots in — appropriately — the Garden District neighborhood, and property owner Marshall Mend has reserved the land for use by the garden for at least the next two years.

Water conservation will be a big part of the garden — each of the garden’s 53 plots (4 feet by 10 feet) will have a drip irrigation system for efficient water use, and there will be a xeriscape (drought-tolerant) demonstration garden on site. The city is pitching in with help to offset the cost of both the irrigation system and the xeriscape garden, and several local small businesses have committed skills and service.

In addition, the garden’s planners envision donating about half of the produce grown in the garden to area food banks, soup kitchens and transitional homes through the Community Roots program.

The workday and plot sign-up for Shared Harvest Community Garden, 10th St. and Foster Ave., Coeur d’Alene, is Saturday, April 25, starting at 9 am. Call Kim Normand at (208) 664-0608.

Spokane’s community gardens are getting rolling for the season as well — in fact, the Hemlock and Fairview Community Garden, adjacent to the Transitional Living Center, is having a cleanup and garden bed-allotment day on Sunday, April 26, starting at 1 pm. And Project HOPE is hosting an Earth Day cleanup event at the corner of Maxwell and Belt in West Central on Saturday, April 25, from 9-11 am. Visit www.spokanegardens.com for details.

We know there’s more happening in our area around community gardens, and we’re trying to learn everything you know about it. If you’re organizing a community garden in your neighborhood — or you’re interested in volunteering your time, donating supplies or even donating a plot of land to the cause — we want to hear from you. E-mail ann@inlander.com, and tell us what you’re up to.

— ANN M. COLFORD