New Golden Community Garden

In 2009 Golden embarked on the first known large scale community garden in it's 150 years. The garden came about as an idea among friends, and quickly blossomed into a full community project, with the support of the city of Golden, various churches, non profits, and businesses. The experience of the start of the Golden Community Garden is one of collaboration and team work. Independent of each other, the Golden Sustainability Board voted to have a community garden started by volunteers as one of its priorities, and a group of friends decided to start garden.

Community garden efforts happened in Golden in the past, but this is the first large scale effort in Golden. The first year was a resounding success, and the second year is also proving to be successful. The success of the garden can be attributed to a great interest in community gardens at this time, a great community in Golden, as well as the collaboration of the many involved, including help from many skilled members of the community, including landscape architects, architects, builders, engineers, etc.. Successes include getting a site in the center of Golden near walking paths and historic neighborhoods, a mini food bank farm at the garden, a permaculture demonstration area in the garden.

Challenges include site drainage, Colorado soil and compost, communication among gardeners, bringing the community at large into the space and keeping the garden as Golden develops a master plan for the corridor in which it resides.