Foundation hopes to grow green for horticulture

By LAURENA MAYNE DAVIS The Daily Sentinel - March 22, 2003

A newly formed foundation wants to dig up funding for local horticulture.

The Western Colorado Gardening Foundation incorporated in December with some 30 members, said President Sylvia Sharpe of Grand Junction.

"It's so new that we just try to let people know that we're out there," Sharpe said.

The group will focus on grant-writing and fund-raising events and funnel proceeds to gardening groups, schools, businesses and organizations.

“We’re already starting to gather lists of people who might benefit,” Sharpe said.

For example, the foundation is applying for a $500 matching grant to purchase trees for Orchard Mesa Middle School. A nursing home in Montrose has asked about funding for a therapy garden and the group is working on plant recommendations for the gardens at the Vietnam Memorial underway in Fruita.

“The list just goes on and on,” Sharpe said.

Other projects in the group’s sights include creating a program to introduce horticulture in the schools, producing a pamphlet of gardening tips for the Western Slope and funding a number of projects for the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.

Extension projects include a storage and classroom facility, a rose garden at the extension office and expanding the master gardener library.

Many foundation members are graduates of the extension’s intensive gardening training, the master gardener program, but membership is open to anyone, Sharpe said.

Foundation meetings are the last Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. at Meadowlark Gardens, 2259 Broadway. The next meeting is March 29.

Membership dues are $15 for a senior or student, $18 for an individual or $30 for a family. There is a $10 charter member special for those who enroll before June 1.

Members receive newsletters, and can participate in plant and seed exchanges, garden tours, educational workshops and social events, Sharpe said.

The March 29 meeting will include a presentation by Ursula Hemmerich, founder of the Grand Valley Rose Society, on “You Too Can Raise Roses.”

For information on the foundation, go to www.wcgf.org or call Sharpe at 523-1865.

Laurena Mayne Davis can be reached via e-mail at lmdavis@gjds.com.