What a great spring day for our 1st gardening workshop. Heather Schlesser, of the UW extension, taught a wonderful session about what to plant in a hoop house, how to build one, and what they are used for. All attendees learned valuable information that can help them extend their growing season (especially with these Wisconsin winters that sometimes last a little longer than desired!).

Our hoop house has, so far, withstood the strong spring winds, and class attendees have planted their seeds. We'll hopefully see some plants peeking through soon!

Our education classes are free to the public and a great way to learn more about gardening. Our next class is April 21st, from 5:30-7 pm, at the Bridge Community Health Clinic. Please call Ellen @ 715-261-2123 for more information and to register for the class!

Wausau Urban Community Gardens is now the proud owner of two bee hives! These docile honey-makers will help pollinate our gardens, and will also produce wax and honey that the program can sell to sustain the gardens!

Honeybees are extremely beneficial to our ecosystem. Many of the foods that we love to eat - apples, strawberries, eggplants, and tomatoes to name a few, directly benefit from the pollination accomplished by bees. 

In addition to the benefits honeybees bring to our ecosystem, honey itself has many health benefits. As a healthier alternative to sugar, honey can be substituted as the sweetener in many recipes. Some even claim that honey can be used to treat minor wounds and scrapes. (Note: as with all medical care, seek professional medical advice before attempting treatments). 

On May 30th, the Wisconsin HealthCorps AmeriCorps members came to Bridge Community Health Clinic to complete their annual service project helping the Wausau Urban Community Gardens program. The team finished the construction of the raised beds, spread soil and woodchips and prepared the plots, planted the community plots, and even had time to work on a decorative flag project to brighten up the gardens! The team worked incredibly hard, and it was a long, hot day in the sun, but the gardens look awesome! Thank you so much to everyone who helped out getting our newest garden up and running! Thank you to Wausau East High School, Terry Van Order, Red's Greenhouse, and the Wisconsin HealthCorps for their monetary and plant donations. We are looking forward to a very successful growing season!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped Wausau Urban Community Gardens to have such a successful growing season. Thanks to your help, we were able to donate over 1000 pounds of fresh produce to The Marathon County Hunger Coalition, which provides food to food pantries throughout Central Wisconsin.

Check out this article in The Wausau Daily Herald about the success of the gardens!

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20131123/WDH01/311230204/Community-gardens-donate-half-ton-produce-food-shelves?gcheck=1

Have a fantastic holiday season, and we hope to see you in the gardens in the spring!

Follow the link below to like us on Facebook! Check the page for pictures, updates, events, and interesting articles.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wausau-Urban-Community-Gardens/162316273968776

As fall approaches and the end of the growing season nears, many of you will probably have excess produce from your gardens that needs to be preserved before it goes bad. One way to be able to use your fruits and vegetables through winter is the process of canning.

If you are like me, the process of canning is a bit of a mystery. Fortunately for us, The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a great site with directions on how to preserve all different types of vegetables.

Here is the link to the site: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can4_vegetable.html

Also from the NCHFP website is a pdf with instructions: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%204%20Home%20Can.pdf

Hopefully this will be helpful! Good luck with the end of the growing season and your vegetable preservation endeavors!

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting our website! My name is Jenny, and I am the new AmeriCorps member working at Bridge Community Health Clinic with Wausau Urban Community Gardens for the 2013-2014 season. Although I am just starting in this position, I already feel so welcomed, and I am so excited to be working with such an amazing program and incredible community!

Here’s a little bit about myself – I was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin (and am a diehard Packers fan!!). I graduated this past May with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. I am in the process of applying to medical schools for the fall of 2014, and my ultimate goal is to become a pediatrician.

I am hoping to continue updating this website with events and updates and other interesting information, as Jamie has done in the past, so stay tuned for more to come!

If you have any questions, concerns, comments, suggestions, thoughts, or anything, please don’t hesitate to contact me! My email is jennyc@bridgeclinic.org and my phone number is 715-848-4884 ext. 2123. I am really looking forward to getting to know more members of the community and to do my part to help this incredible program flourish even more!