Life on Florida’s West Coast

Grow Something Beautiful With a Project Orange Thumb Grant

A garden is a wondrous thing. My mother always had a garden in our backyard. Actually, she had several. She would plant a vegetable and herb garden. She had one side of the house where she cultivated amazing roses. She also put several amazing flower gardens in at different places all over the front and back yards. I think she got her green thumb from her father, who always put in acres of vegetables and came from a long line of hobby farmers.

The focus of my fascination when it comes to gardens has always been when people come together in urban spaces to create a community garden. Not only is that garden going to brighten the neighborhood, but it also facilitates relationships between neighbors that may not otherwise spend time together.

I’ve been reading tonight about one of the coolest grant projects I’ve ever heard of. It’s called the Fiskars Project Orange Thumb grant. What this grant does is provide up to $1000 in green goods and up to $1,500 in Fiskars gardening tools for garden projects in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Gardens or gardening projects that focus on community involvement, neighborhood beautification, sustainable agriculture, or horticultural education qualify – and that includes schools! As soon as I read through the site I immediately thought of my daughter’s school and the HUGE courtyard area they have in the middle of the campus. Some of it is bricked, but there are these patches of grass that are perfect for a school wide gardening project.

Of course, not only future projects are eligible. You can apply for the grant if you have an existing garden or gardening project that qualifies. I just printed out the main page of the site to send to the school and I want to encourage all of you – my readers – to apply for projects in your community. The application deadline is February 17, 2009 so you have plenty of time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that others at my daughter’s school will be as excited about this as me.

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