No Gardener Left Behind (NGLB)

The 2nd Annual No Gardener Left Behind Expo was held on Saturday, April 24, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, at the Robert H.Gibson River Garden in Brattleboro.

This year's event focused on kids and youth, and therefore, also serve as a fund raiser for the area's community school gardens, with a raffle for seeds, gardening books, and tools. Over $200 was raised to support these gardens.

Green Street, Academy, Oak Grove, and Dummerston schools displayed their achievements and talked about their future plans. Green Street Garden Coordinator Abi Healey led a challenging activity for both kids and youth to match a seed to its plant.

In addition, Lisa Holderness from Deer Ridge Farm and Farm Camp, also our local NOFA-VT Farm-to-School Mentor, led some children's activities that produced smiles and seedlings to go home with both kids and adults. 

Carolyn Partridge, the Chair of the Vermont House Agriculture Committee stopped by to address the crowd. She stressed the importance of gardening and supporting local farms and the work of the Farm to Plate Initiative.

The Master Gardeners from the UVM Extension provided a wonderful table with great resources about gardening and composting.

They even had strawberry plants, garlic, and flowers to give away.

And Robert King worked with folks to plant bean seedlings to take home. His display included a wide variety of low tech hand tools and other tried and true techniques to grow more of our food for 12 months.  Adults and youth benefited from the event and went home to plant seedlings or seeds purchased at the event!  We are looking forward to next years event!

Many thanks to all who participated, including the generous donations of time and resources:

Brown and Roberts Hardware

Lilac Ridge Farm

Walker Farm

High Mowings Seeds