Written by: Kristina Langan, Colorado Master Gardener class of 2020
The local group, Supporters of Horticultural EDucation (SHED) has recently adopted the new vision statement, “Gardeners Helping Gardeners Reach Gardening Dreams” with the intent to enlarge its mission for Pueblo’s gardening community.
SHED was originally created to provide scholarships for Pueblo residents wanting to take the Pueblo County CSU Extension courses to become Colorado Master Gardeners and for current Colorado Master Gardeners who wanted to further their horticultural knowledge through other classes and programs. With this new vision statement, they hope to expand beyond this purely financial support into helping not only CMGs but all local plant-lovers who want to connect with each other and to provide needed resources to make their dream projects come true.
What kind of dream projects? Some possibilities the group imagines are: create a new community garden, organize a “Friends of” group to care for and beautify a local park, develop a demonstration garden to share knowledge about pollinators and water-wise gardening or even help neighborhoods learn to grow and share healthy food.
To do this, they are going to need more help. Many people may have heard of SHED because of the annual May SHED/Master Gardener Plant Sale. Popular with CMG’s as a fun volunteering opportunity as well as with Pueblo residents as a great source of plants grown in and for our region. The sale includes drought-tolerant perennials and ground covers, native species that support birds, butterflies and bees, Dr. Michael Bartolo’s Pueblo Primrose ornamental peppers and Kata Schmidt’s famous home-grown vegetable and herb starts.
As part of its new initiative to foster connections among local gardeners, SHED will be exploring ways to realize a very grand ambition: to turn the plant sale into a garden networking festival hosting booths for other gardening or community groups, local speakers and presentations, and perhaps eventually food and other entertainment. They plan to start small in 2022 by seeking out local groups interested in having informational tables at the sale. They will also be setting up their own informational tables at other local events. Finally, in discussions about their new vision, many SHED members brought up how the challenges of Covid have left many in the CMG community feeling disconnected, so it was decided SHED will host several social events in 2022 for Master Gardeners, preferably in local parks or gardens of interest.
All of this is going to make for a lot more (and more interesting) opportunities. Please consider becoming a SHED member today!! Go to http://puebloshed.org and click on membership to find the Join Now! button, and make a plan to “Hang Out at the SHED” at their next meeting 9am Friday, January 14th, 2022. (This meeting will be either a Zoom-only, or a hybrid Zoom/in-person meeting.)
For questions, please email Catherine Burst at catherineburst@gmail.com