Mayday! Gardens

Mayday! Mayday! Hear the call and be in action. It is time for us all to GROW FOOD!  

We say 'Change Your Food, Change the World!'  

Everyone gets to take home dozens of ready-to-plant organic vegetable starts, as well as seed potatoes and seeds!  

"Mayday! Gardens" is a call to share, an answer to Nature's need for our attention, care, and cooperation. It's community, it's food, it's a seed for our futures.  Garden plants are grown and cared for with the generous help of volunteers, visiting school classes and groups, and our youth interns.  Food plants are a gift from our heart to yours- because we believe in Us, Together!   

In May receive 30+ plant starts from these local favorites: 

Broccoli, Cabbage, Kales, Swiss Chard, Onions, Tomatoes, Winter Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Lettuce. Seed Potatoes generously donated by Mountain Springs Farm!  Some loose bean, beet, and other seeds will be available, too.

In order to expand our reach, we kindly request that you only register for ONE garden of plants per household.

**Instead of a Father's Day pick-up as in years past, we will instead offer a Fall Garden full of storage crop plants, for Pick-up in July.  It will include starts such as: Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Beets, Broccoli, Lettuce, Kohlrabi, Peas.  Registration for Fall Garden opens in early summer.

Mayday! Mayday! It is time for us all to GROW FOOD!   

If we want to Change the World, we need to Change our Food.  Thanks for growing food and for being part of the possibilities. Peace-

Important Information

-All veggie starts are Free/ By-Donation! Additional flower & herb starts are available to purchase.

-Choose the date and time that works best for you and do not feel rushed. There is enough for everyone!

-Limit of ONE garden per household, please!!!

-Please bring egg cartons and/or boxes to carry your starts home.

HOW and WHERE do I plant my 'Future Food'?

How and where you plant Your Future Food is only limited by your imagination. A small, 4’X6’ square will work, a 1’wide strip that is 24’ long will work, planter boxes, large patio pots, and raised beds will work. Just plant your future food, please.

Mayday! Gardens can be in your front yard, along the driveway or boulevard, in a community garden plot: anywhere with soil, sunlight, and a way to get water.

Preparing to grow Your Future Food is easy. All you need is a shovel, a garden fork, or a rototiller.

Maintaining Your Future Food is fun and easy. All you need is access to clean water and a bucket, watering can, or hose. It will be rewarding to care for your plants, will give you a bit of exercise, and will make you happy.

Harvesting Your Food will be the BEST FUN, and Your Food will taste INCREDIBLE! Preparing it into delicious and healthy meals will be easy. We’ll share tips to help you be successful including recipe and meal ideas, designed especially for the vegetables in your Mayday! Garden.

Advice from a farmer:

• Plant ‘Your Future Food’ carefully and with mindfulness for the gift of resilience that food plants share with us. Tuck the plants into the soil, making sure all the original soil is completely covered by your garden soil. Water Your Future Food plants after you plant them, making sure to keep them moist for the first two weeks.
• Tend Your Future Food with care and attention. This does not have to take a lot of time but does require a consistent schedule of watering, cultivating, harvesting, preparing, and also eating!
• Make spending time maintaining Your Future Food the highlight of your day. Caring for plants feeds our need for connection, and aligns us for co-creating a healthy future: a world that works for everyone.
• Adopt an attitude of open discovery. Look for new ways to understand. For example, the German definition for weeds says they are just plants growing in the wrong place at the wrong time!
• Connect with Your Future Food plants. Start by appreciating their ability to grow as you watch them take hold in your garden. Smile at the creative and beautiful way nature uses chlorophyll to turn sunlight into leaves, food you get to eat! Thank them for growing, and thank them when you harvest Your Food.
• When saving seeds, know you are part of a lineage of seed caretakers who have shared these food plants with the following generations for as long as humans have been growing plants. This is a very special thing. Your grandmother probably did it, your great-great grandmother definitely did it, and every grandmother before her also saved seeds. Enjoy your place in the lineage of seed saving.

Have Fun and Eat Well!! Peace Through Food.

Cultivating Connections Montana: Learn, Work, Grow, Connect