Hello and welcome to Ivy Street Community Garden!

This garden has been lovingly tended since 2015, and remains one of the most desirable of our 10 community garden sites. The rock pathways, wood edged beds, and individual hose bibs revolutionized Garden City Harvest’s garden design while making neighbors and other community gardeners drool with envy. (For more information on the other nine community gardens, click here.) We hope you enjoy this special little garden nestled in Missoula’s slant street neighborhood. Please read all of the important information here and watch the video orientation below so you are familiar with your garden’s amenities and resources. We hope that with an understanding of all the pieces that make up this garden site, you will help us care for it and keep it functioning and thriving for the benefit of everyone.

Important Housekeeping Items:

Always close the gates when you leave to keep deer and dogs out.

Always lock the shed and double check the lock when leaving the garden (spin the numbers and give it a little yank to make sure it is indeed locked),

Communicate with your garden neighbors! Here is the link to Ivy Street’s private gardener Facbook group. This is a great way to communicate with fellow gardeners and stay up to date with other happenings or updates in the garden.

For issues or inquiries, contact the Community Gardens Staff or the Ivy Street Leadership Committee (contact info in the shed).

If a water line breaks in the garden, FIRST turn off the water. Find the green valve box in the pathway between plot # 4 and the east fence line (check the map of the garden posted inside the shed). Open up the green box’s lid and turn the valve to turn off the water. THEN, contact Community Garden Staff. It is also extremely helpful to post about the water issue on the Facebook group, so other gardeners know not to come to the garden planning on watering until the issue is fixed.

Contact Staff

Garden Shed and Communal Tools

Upon entering the garden, one of the first things you’ll notice is the garden shed. The shed’s combination is in the orientation email you just received. Inside the shed you’ll find communal garden tools, wheelbarrows, and hoses for your use at the garden. On the right side of the shed when you walk in is contact information for Garden City Harvest staff and your garden’s leadership committee (The leadership committee are amazing fellow gardeners who volunteer their time to help you and Garden City Harvest staff). A first aid kit, important safety information, and other documents will be posted in the shed too.

Hoses and Watering

Unlike most of our other garden sites, each garden plot at Ivy Street has its own hose bib. This allows gardeners the flexibility to install their own drip irrigation system, sprinkler, or timer (oh boy!). Garden City Harvest does not provide these resources, so you’ll have to purchase them on your own to customize your plot’s irrigation system. (Note: If you buy special watering equipment, please store them at home instead of the garden shed. Shed space is limited and they may become communal.) There are a couple communal hoses and sprinkler heads for gardeners to use and share. Please coil them up and return them to the shed when done.

Water Conservation

Sometimes when people set up automatic watering or timers, they set it and forget it. Please note! It’s important to check your watering schedule and your garden soil regularly so you can adjust it as the season changes. Overwatering not only wastes water, but also floods pathways and increases mold and algae growth in plots and pathways. It’s not healthy for your crops either! For more information about watering effectively, read this blog or ask staff.

On this table in the shed, you’ll find resources on gardening, a recipe card box to log your three service hours, and free seeds.

Remember, all gardeners are required to fill at least three hours helping to maintain the greater community garden and communal areas.

Make sure to read the “Communal Areas” section at the bottom of the blog for ideas on how to fill these hours…

Soil amendments

Compost

The image below is Ivy Street’s “house” compost system. This is for vegetable scraps from your garden and kitchen. DO NOT ADD WEEDS, FIBROUS PLANT STALKS, ANIMAL PRODUCTS, PAPER PRODUCTS, TRASH OR COMMERCIAL-GRADE COMPOSTABLE ITEMS. These items will not break down in our simple bin system.

All inputs start at the farthest left bin and are turned (moved with a digging fork or shovel) to the next bin as they break down to make room for fresh scraps! The decomposed compost in the farthest right bin is good to use in your garden - help yourself! Keep in mind, this compost system doesn’t break down on its own. It requires time, water, and attention. If the compost starts to smell, it either doesn't have enough carbon (straw) or it needs to be turned (which gives it oxygen and reduces the smell). During the hot summer months, the compost needs to be watered frequently (every day or every other day.)

Straw

You might find straw bales from last fall near the shed. These are for community gardener use as well. We recommend you use straw only for mulching garlic and overwintering crops. Unfortunately, due to rising prices of straw and diminishing local sources, Garden City Harvest cannot provide every gardener with straw and ask those who have the means to purchase your own straw in the fall. If you do use the straw we provide, please limit your use to 1/2 bale per plot. We also strongly encourage you to use leaves if you have them available as they are a great mulch for your overwintering soil. Straw can be found at Ace Hardware, Murdochs, CHS Mountain West Co-op, and local nurseries.

Please place used straw that you rake off your plot next to the compost bins to be mixed in with the vegetable scraps.

Manure

Garden City Harvest brings in composted manure every spring for community gardeners to help supplement their garden soil. Each garden plot is allotted two 5-gallon buckets of manure each spring. Gardeners are also encouraged to build their own soil by bringing in other amendments as long as it does not contain chemicals or bio solids (treated sewage). Check out our Sustainable Growing Guidelines for more information.

Weed Pile

Weeds must be separated from other garden waste and placed in designated weed pile inside the drive in gate, near the shed. DO NOT put weeds in the house compost system! Stalky plants (i.e. sunflower, corn, kale or Brussels sprout stalks that take a long time to decompose) also go in the designated weed pile.

Please take the time to separate your house-compostable garden materials from the weeds and stalks, and absolutely no dumping of personal home yard or garden waste is allowed. Do not add straw, soil, potted plants, plastic, leaves or any other yard waste to the weed pile. The weed pile is manually removed by Garden City Harvest staff throughout the season and taken to the City compost facility, and these items make it extremely difficult to move by hand. The compost facility may also reject the entire pile.

Communal Areas

There are several other communal areas and resources in the garden that need your help. Many of these will benefit you and your garden. Additionally, Ivy Street Garden is located on city-owned land, so it is important to be respectful tenants and neighbors. Here’s a list of things that all community gardeners are collectively responsible for, so please do your part and chip in those three hours (or more)!

Perennial flower beds that surround the garden located between the roads and the fence: Here you’ll find yarrow, yarrrow, and more yarrow! There are some other native plants tucked in along this edge, but yarrow really loves it here, and as you’ll see, it has taken over some areas. Yarrow is a native plant that is great for beneficial insects. Please help us by weeding this flower bed (see most wanted weeds in the section below), and cutting down the brown/dead flower heads from last season. We also want to keep yarrow out of the garden pathways, so please pull it in the pathways.
Weeding: You’ll quickly find that we have ghosts from the past at this garden…that is bindweed! Bindweed is a very invasive and perennial weed. Before this site was converted into a community garden, it was a neglected and weedy lot. Bindweed used to have free reign of the place. Now, we need your help keeping this weed out of our gardens because it will take over the pathways, the flower beds, and your garden plot! See photos of most wanted weeds below for help identifying it.
Beyond your garden plot, please pitch in weeding the pathways around the picnic area, compost, shed and ADA raised beds.
Tool shed: Help us keep it clean and tidy. Occasionally, it will need to be reorganized and swept.
Community berry and herb patch: Located in the triangle bed in the farthest south corner of the garden, you’ll find some raspberries, strawberries and herbs. Help us water and weed this bed, and in turn harvest a handful when ripe!
Trash: The rule is pack it in and pack it out, but inevitably trash ends up blowing around the garden. Spend a couple minutes helping us pick up trash around the garden site.
Need more ideas? Contact your leadership committee - contact info in the shed!

most wanted WEEDS

Weeding is a fundamental part of gardening and should be done weekly. If you keep up with it using a hoop (hula) hoe, it should take no more than an hour a week to keep your plot clear of most weeds. If you choose to weed less often, the task will get exponentially more difficult, and you will be on your hands and knees digging out weeds. Keep your eyes out for notices about weeds throughout the growing season. Watch the video tutorials and look at the photos below for weeding tips, and if you have any questions about weeds, please ask!

While there are many garden weeds, we have two problem plants on the site - quack grass and bindweed. These weeds should be placed in the weed pile, after you make sure to shake out any clumps of dirt.

Quackgrass

Quackgrass is a perennial grass with white, wire like roots and should be added to the weed pile. Use a digging fork to loosen the soil and make it easier to pull out the roots. Make sure you shake out any clumps of dirt.

Bindweed

Bindweed is a perennial that is very sneaky. We want you to be able to ID it before it flowers and weed it out. It has arrow-shaped leaves, white flowers, and vines around anything nearby. Put bindweed in the weed pile.

Ivy Street Community Garden Orientation