News Blog

One of our 2018 Multi Regional Summit Civic Ignition grant recipients is The Morris Teaching Garden!

Project leader Gemini describes the project:

20 people have participated in this project to create a year round garden and space to teach about urban gardening. This project is a part of the Morris Hostel, a long standing burner run establishment. Downtown Reno is a food desert. There are 90,000 people living in the downtown area and zero affordable, fresh food options. We are working with another non-profit, On Common Ground, to continue this work in to the future. We are working with them to develop a concept based on having a food truck that delivers fresh produce on a sliding scale to areas of downtown that are in the heart of the food desert.

The Civic Ignition funds were used to buy soil, seeds and plastic covering to cover our geodesic dome that we have converted in to a year-round growing space and be able to teach those touring or inquiring at the Morris about urban gardening. Although we deviated some from the original plan due to the exit of the creator of the plan, we still accomplished our mission, are growing organic vegetables in January, and have awesome and exciting plans to expand and continue the education in to 2019.

Due to the transient natures of burners in general and at the Morris specifically, it has been an interesting process as all of the people who initiated the grant left the Morris before the project could be completed. In true “communal effort” style, we found new people to take up the torch and in fact, the lead now, who we call Paisly (Marie Breaden), is who Gemini first thought of to be a part of this project. The fates smiled on us, and she was free to come back and help us grow, literally. We used all re-purposed materials for the raised beds, proving that big things can happen on small budgets.

We are going to continue to teach people about urban gardening as long as we can. The last two years, we have tabled at our local Earth Day Celebration, and given marigold seeds, worms, and organic soil to people. We love to teach children, let them get their hands in the dirt, and give them a “helping plant” to stick in their gardens. We will continue this beyond 2019 (Reno Earth Day is taking a break for 2019, sadly), and perhaps teach some classes about urban gardening, heirloom seeds, sustainability practices, and working together to keep the garden alive in busy lives!

To learn more and get involved with the Morris Teaching Garden in Reno, find them here.

To learn more about the next round of Civic Ignition grants, subscribe to the BWB newsletter here.