Community garden ready for Whitefish's green thumbs

If you look hard enough, it feels like you can find almost anything growing in the 60 or so plots that make up the Whitefish Community Garden.

Located next to the Whitefish United Methodist Church, each summer the garden displays the handiwork of Whitefish’s greenest thumbs, which ranges from the standard, like spinach, garlic and tomatoes, to the more exotic, like Indian corn, plum trees and Brussels sprouts.

“Come May, June, July, the place is abuzz,” said Janice McCann, who helps coordinate the garden along with Jennie Henson.

“It’s about the community,” McCann says. “People really like just hanging out here. It’s a friendly, open place. People come and they’ll have their lunch at the picnic table and they’ll work a few hours.”

The garden officially opens Saturday, April 29.

In its ninth year, the garden has grown from a small patch of raised beds to a continually growing patch of colorful vegetables and herbs. Thanks to the help of several local organizations, like Soroptimist International of Whitefish, the Whitefish Community Foundation, Flathead Electric Co-op and others, the garden has blossomed.

Each year the garden adds at least two beds — sometimes more, depending on the number of interested gardeners. It costs $50 and a few hours a week of watering and gardening to rent a plot. Included in that cost is access to water, composting, composted fertilizer and a chance to interact with Whitefish’s other prolific gardeners.

The garden is also offering a chance to adopt one of the several food bank plots for free, providing a chance to get down and dirty in the soil while also giving back. Most of what comes out of the plots goes to North Valley Food Bank, and one plot is also reserved for a food bank across the divide in Browning.

“We’re trying something new this year,” Henson said. “Before we always had a couple of people that did all this, and this year we’re hoping that maybe different families or an organization would adopt a [food bank] bed and kind of take care of it that way.”

“We’re hoping maybe a family with kids would like to come in, kids can play in the dirt, they can show kids how to grow food, produce it and take it down to the food bank,” McCann added. “It would just be a fun family volunteer opportunity.”

The garden is welcoming anyone who’s interested on April 29, when new gardeners can come and rent plots and help repair and build new and existing beds. No gardening experience is necessary, and plots are given out on a first come, first serve basis. Opening day events are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, visit www.whitefishcommunitygarden.com or call Henson at 212-6723 or McCann at 794-2031.