Hope Community Garden Update

Looking East over the future raised-beds and cold-frames of the Hope Garden

Over the past couple months Blue Sky Builders of Espanola, NM have made steady progress on the community/demonstration garden project at the Community Pantry in Gallup. The perimeter fences have been built, the retaining walls of the garden beds built, and four rainwater harvesting tanks installed. The later coming just in time to capture the winter snowfall- all four tanks were filled to the brim (around 10,000 gallons) and over-flowing, yet no valves or plumbing had been installed (a hard thing to do when fighting so much water pressure).

On my 1500 gallon rainwater tank, I lost a full load of water the first winter it was installed when the 2" ball valve cracked during a week of sub-freezing weather. Insulation and an electric pipe warmer have since solved that problem. However, if I had chosen a more sun-exposed location for the plastic valve, I doubt I'd have any problem, as is the case at the Hope Garden's tanks. Three of the four cold-frames they've planned have been fitted together, still waiting their protective plastic covers and rich soil. I'll meet with the Community Pantry staff soon and post an interview on the specific status of this great project.