Courtesy of the Manitou Springs Garden Club
The Manitou Springs Garden Club is excited to announce our grant awards. We raise money each year at our annual plant sale (details below) and the proceeds go back into the community in the form of grants for sustainability and resilience.
Our first grant goes to Concrete Couch for the expansion of the Soda Springs Park rain garden. This garden helps beautify the park and helps absorb extra rainfall while increasing the amount of temperature-absorbing plant life.
Our second grant goes to the Pikes Peak Leadership Program via Kelly Bull for a passive irrigation curb cut, which will be a demonstration of retrofit curb cuts in the city of Colorado Springs. This simple and effective method of passive irrigation could dramatically increase the shade, beauty and wildlife support on our streets.
They also decrease pressure on the stormwater system and naturally filter water through the soil. This idea was pioneered by Brad Lancaster pioneered this technique in Tucson and wrote about it in his book, “Rainwater Harvesting.”
Next we awarded a grant to Pikes Peak Permaculture for its Scholarship Opportunity Fund, which helps community members participate in classes when they face a financial barrier. PPP has seen increased requests for tuition assistance from community members, including military veterans, inquiring about growing food in our climate using permaculture skills.
Timberline Baptist Church in Manitou is receiving a grant to continue improving its property after flood damage. We are hoping the grant will be used to add one or more trees to the landscaping, in addition to pollinators and native perennials.
Ute Pass Elementary School is receiving a grant to support their many projects in planting and gardening. Our grant will fund class sets of handheld gardening tools, two to three class sets of gardening/work gloves, and funds for soil amendments and compost.
Another grant goes to the Spa Building in downtown Manitou to grow herbs and flowers in the surrounding beds. This is a continuation of a project started last year and covers the three beds between the Spa Building and the Penny Arcade, in addition to the beds along the backside of the garage and three planters. Last year’s beds were wonderfully successful.
We also have a couple of grants pending approval and they will be decided at our June meeting.
Our grants are made possible by community support of our plant sale. This year’s sale will take place 9 a.m.-noon Sunday, May 28, at the Schryver Park/Manitou pool parking lot, 202 Manitou Ave.
Information here.