Gateway Greening

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6th at 6:30 p.m. is the next St. Charles & St. Louis Master Gardener Speakers Series! Native Plant Care and Maintenance will be presented by Malinda Slagle who is a co-founder, along with Chris Feldewerth, of Compass Native Landscapes. Malinda will focus on common maintenance issues and concerns: weeding, pruning, watering and fertilization. Natives can be low maintenance but are not no maintenance! Malinda has a masters degree in pollination ecolog...y and has been working with Missouri native plants since 2004. FREE with registration and OPEN to the general public. Register:

It's Compost Awareness Week! This year's theme Grow, Eat...COMPOST...Repeat, "empowers us to recognize and promote the importance of composting and the use of compost in growing healthier food, supporting healthier soils and, ultimately, creating a more just and sustainable world." We definitely can't mention composting without giving a shout-out to St. Louis Composting, Inc.! They partnered with us on our build-a-bed kits and we use their soil at every community or school garden install and expansion! A few years ago we made this video with one of our volunteers David. He explains composting as well as how our 3-bin compost system works.

We'll talk about summer veggies at our Demo Garden Tour live on Instagram this Tuesday at 9:30 am! Follow us @gatewaygreeningstl to get notified when we begin. #urbanag #garden #gardening #growyourown

In order to pickup your seed packets orders at the January pickup days you will need to place your order by this Wednesday, January 20! Our Online Store ~> https://buff.ly/36ThpD8 #urbanag #urbanagriculture #growyourown #urbangarden #garden #gardening #growyourownfood

Our Seed Starting class is next week! We will cover the basics of starting seeds, what is needed for growing healthy seedlings, and general tips and tricks. Thursday, January 28 6:00 pm... Register ~> https://buff.ly/2Wjagaa #growyourown #urbanag #garden #gardening #growyourownfood #urbanagriculture #urbangarden

The local non-profit Evolve is having several Community Check-Ins with Black St. Louis City and St. Louis County residents aged 18-45! Registration is required. Just email Kelly at [email protected]. "2020 was a year of enlightenment for folks in this country, concerning the impact that systemic racism has had on the wellbeing Black Americans. As a result, STL City and County governments have passed legislation declaring racism a public health crisis. That sounds great, ...but how does that ensure that communities are designed for ALL St. Louisans to thrive? To hold elected officials accountable, we first have to engage in the local systems that impact our communities. This conversation serves as a first step in doing this, as we learn how residents get their information about what is going on in their communities. In addition, we will think through how we can collectively increase community awareness about these matters, because it will take all of us to spark the much needed change we want to see." ~ Evolve #communitycheckin2021#communityovereverything #314evolve #stlouis

We're so lucky to have the Missouri Botanical Garden right here in St. Louis! "Each year, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Science and Conservation staff discover and name about 200 plant species new to science. That’s roughly 10 percent of all plant species discovered by scientists worldwide annually."

We asked the gardens in our network how this last growing season went for them and are inspired by how they persevered through all the challenges of 2020. We’ll be sharing some of their stories. The Feed the People Garden Project began in 2017. It’s a community garden in the Bevo neighborhood that grows food to donate to those that need it. Ro Kicker, the garden leader, shared with us the highlights from the growing season. 2020 was the best year yet for Feed the People Gard...en Project, despite having to navigate it during a pandemic. We were able to grow and donate over 400 grocery bags of fresh produce to the Metro Trans Umbrella Group and PotBangerz - Feed The Body Mission! We continued to have volunteer engagement (one person at a time in the garden) throughout the year, and it REALLY went a long way! We have created a really solid infrastructure, and are anticipating growing and donating even more food in 2021, which hopefully will include an abundance of fruit from our fruit trees that were planted in 2018. Here's hoping we will be on the other side of COVID by spring and able to have lots of community garden days again! We are so impressed by this garden and all they do. They donated so many bags of produce that they had to start over with their count!

Our virtual class this week is Getting the Most Out of Your Growing Space. This class will start off with some gardening basics and then will dive into plants that give lots of production, season extension techniques, as well as timing for when to pull plants and replant. The class is this Thursday, November 12, at 6:00 pm. It will be over Zoom so just sign up to receive the link to connect. Sign Up ~> https://buff.ly/3mTAStu... #urbanag #garden #gardening #urbangarden #urbanagriculture

Did you miss this virtual class on Thursday? We'll be teaching it a couple of times next month in partnership with the St. Louis County Library! Just register to receive the Zoom link. How to Design a Healthy Backyard Orchard and Garden Tuesday, December 1, 2:00 - 3:00 pm Register: https://buff.ly/34cTEG4... How to Design a Healthy Backyard Orchard and Garden Thursday, December 3, 7:00 - 8:00 pm Register: https://buff.ly/3dMQGen #garden #urbanag #urbanagriculture #growyourown #urbangarden

The Decomposing Leaf Timeline is a great lesson to use with students as an introduction to decomposition and nature journaling. In this lesson, students will observe and diagram the complex process of decomposition. #edchat #scienceteachers #science #education #learning #scichat #scienceteachers

Applications for the St. Louis Master Gardener program for their evening classes are now open! They will remain open until they are full. This program includes 18 weeks of training along with supplemental classes and tours that are optional. Scholarships are available for qualified applicants. Apply ~> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STLMGevening #gardening #mastergardener #garden #urbanag