BYU-Idaho Radio · Gardening Season with IFCGA
Eastern Idaho is seeing spring weather emerge, and with the new season comes beautiful changes in the flora of the region.
Now people all over the country are looking to add that spring look to their own homes, by growing gardens filled with all sorts of vegetables and flowers. The Idaho Falls Community Garden Association (IFCGA) wants to help Eastern Idaho learn how to add some green to their yards.
Kristi Appelhans, the president of IFCGA, said the community gardens in Idaho Falls are great places to own your own garden or to learn how to grow one yourself.
“Each garden has between 25 and 40 plots, and every plot is rented to an individual who wants to grow their own stuff,” she said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
There are three total community gardens in the city, and Appelhans gets to watch over all of them. She said the best part is watching everyone learn how to grow their own plants.
“The pleasure that we get from watching people come to understand and embrace the joy of putting that little seed in the ground and watching it come up and then being able to harvest it and enjoy that or share it is the best part of what we do,” Appelhans said.
Since the goal of the IFCGA is to help others learn how to grow their own gardens, they have created several classes that they host each winter of tips and tricks to help you get started.
“Two of those classes were about how to build healthy soil, we had a fermentation class, we had a class about native plants, pollinators, seed-saving,” Appelhans said.
All of these videos are available at their website, ifcga.org. Ultimately, Appelhans said her favorite part about the IFCGA is being able to see the effect these gardens have on people.
“It’s really rewarding to watch our community grow, literally,” she said.