Colorado native plants now grace Harvest Farm

July 22, 2009

By Brenda Rader Mross

The Wellington

 

Thanks to a recent grant, the landscape at Harvest Farm is going native.

 

While Harvest Farm’s popular Pizza Farm resident pigs Pepper and Roni won’t be caught wearing grass skirts anytime soon, they and thousands of annual visitors just may go hog wild over the new scenery.

 

Operated by the Denver Rescue Mission, Harvest Farm is located a mile north of Wellington (Colorado). The 209-acre rural center offers long-term counseling for up to 72 men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. They work with livestock and crops in the faith-based program.

 

In May, Colorado Garden Show Inc. awarded the Denver Rescue Mission $6,204 to incorporate a Colorado native plant site into the two-acre Pizza Farm using trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers recommended for the Front Range by the Colorado Native Plant Society.

 

The 50 new plants are indigenous perennials from Fort Collins Nursery and include Colorado spruce, avena, blue gamma, little bluestem, Apache plume, rabbitbrush, sumac, Rocky Mountain penstemon, Gold Banner and Boulder raspberry.

 

Topsoil, mulch and breeze (crushed flagstone) were purchased at Summit View Landscape Supply.

 

Planting began July 13, and the farm’s agriculture supervisor estimates the first phase will be completed by the end of summer.

 

“Of course we’ll never really be done-done,” said Brian Newman, a former graphic artist who prefers playing in the dirt to designing on paper. “This is a working farm and an ongoing project, so even as things get completed there will always be something in progress.”

 

Newman said the goal is to mimic the look of the Colorado plains and foothills surrounding Harvest Farm, while providing an educational native plant landscaped area, complete with meandering pathways and identifying signage. Future plans may include adding a water feature, he said.

 

Harvest Farm marketing manager Richard Lynn said it was the project’s potential teaching aspects that helped secure the grant. This is the farm’s second CGS award. Proceeds generated from the annual Colorado Garden and Home Show in Denver also helped build the 1,600-square-foot greenhouse. Lynn said the produce grown inside is often part of a welcome and restorative lunch for urban residents who may be unaccustomed to fresh food.

 

According to Lynn, the Pizza Farm is a franchise Harvest Farm bought into a couple of years ago to aid in its long-term community outreach efforts. The Pizza Farm is designed as an interactive demonstration plot that connects children and “city folks” with the origins of one of America’s favorite foods.

 

“We’re trying to educate more people about our organization and at the same time how the food chain fits into everyday life,” he explained.

 

On planting day, two dairy cows and one beef cow lazily grazed next to a stand of wheat, while the pig pair rooted around in the neighboring pen. A thousand chicks cheeped, peeped and tweeted in the new barn, which replaced the original destroyed in a November 2005 fire that killed several animals.

 

Like most activities at Harvest Farm, “Farmer Richie” said the idea of landscaping the area around the Pizza Farm was born out of a team effort.

 

“We brainstormed as a group on how we could increase (the mission’s) educational opportunities,” Lynn said. “Out of the blue came local landscaping.”

 

When representatives from the CGS came up to check on the greenhouse, Lynn said, they encouraged Harvest Farm staff to apply for more funding to make the educational native garden a reality.

 

“Everything we picked out will thrive without much water for a real local feel,” Lynn said. “We are not going to plant bananas here.”

 

Lynn called the project a win-win-win situation, as it also gives Harvest Farm participants the opportunity to provide a valuable community service by teaching others about Colorado agriculture and the state’s eco-system.

 

Volunteer coordinator and instructor Eddy Hopkins is known around the farm for his green thumb and is pitching in because he really and truly digs gardening. Hopkins started connecting social work with horticulture via inner city gardening in Vancouver before coming to Harvest Farm last year. Hopkins said he, Newman and program participants will do all of the work involved, including weeding, and a nearby windmill will supply water.

 

Controlling weeds is in reality a vital part of “work therapy,” he said, as are working the land and giving back to the community. In turn, Hopkins said, what helps the men the most is when community members support a project by talking it up and not being afraid.

 

“These are not creepy addicts,” Hopkins elaborated. “They are brothers. They are fathers. They are sons. And they are turning their lives around.

 

Walkways made of breeze will wind their way in and around the labeled native vegetation. Hopkins termed the twisting trails intentional metaphors for health and rehabilitation treatments.

 

“We don’t like straight lines,” he said. “These paths indicate the quickest way is not always best.”

 

Hopkins said the sight and sound of the unceasing traffic on Interstate 25 is a constant reminder of the fast-paced lifestyle residents are attempting to leave behind.

 

Meanwhile, seemingly oblivious to the foreign human rat race, Pepper and Roni are in hog heaven, content in their natural habitat.

Groups interested in touring the Pizza Farm and its new surroundings should visit www.HarvestFarm.org.