1. WCG's Grateful Tomato Garden
The Grateful Tomato Garden is a magical green space in the heart of the city that brings together thousands of people each year to grow, eat and learn about healthy, organic local food. The south half of the garden is divided into 26 community garden plots. The north half is managed by WCG’s Youth Program and hosts summer camps, field trips and a youth garden club. Throughout the garden, we also have demonstration garden beds dedicated to community education.
In the heart of the garden, there is an artesian well that pumps fresh, clean water, and quells the thirst of adults, children, and plants within the garden. In the northeast section of the garden is the Grateful Chicken Coop and run. We have a colorful flock of 8 different types of hens.
Additionally, the garden hosts the annual Tomato Sandwich Party, a free event (this year on September 8th) that serves more than 700 tomato pesto sandwiches to the public as a token of WCG’s appreciation for its community support.
Reasons to visit this site:
WCG staff are on hand to answer questions about gardening, community gardening, and the organization. WCG t-shirts for sale!
Site features: Community garden, vegetable garden, fruit trees, chickens, season extenders, and an aquifer.
2. Mobile Moon
Bus will be parked next to the Grateful Tomato Garden on 600 East
Utilizing a converted 1980 school bus, The Mobile Moon Co-op is resource center on wheels! This multi-use space includes a tea shop, a botanical apothecary and classroom, and a resource library for women, femme, and queer health. Their mission is to preserve communities and ecosystems through education, empowerment and botanical stewardship. Through learning and working with the land, plants and fungi, they encourage all to have a healthier more fulfilled way of life.
There will be items available for purchase including locally produced tea and herbal wellness products and literature. They welcome one and all to partake and enjoy the locally grown and wildcrafted flavors of the Wasatch Valley.
Reasons to visit this site:
Reasons to visit this site: Seriously, this is a bus turned apothecary. That is cool!
Site features: Garden resources
3. Learning by Doing
Kelly is a new gardener and has been slowly taking on more of her own food production as she transitioned to a vegetarian diet. Passersby take notice of the colorful front yard garden, where veggies grow along the park strip, but step into the backyard and discover so much more!
The backyard features grapes, raspberries and blackberries, all within a fairly small space. A centrally placed garden bed in the backyard transforms into an unheated greenhouse during the cold months, and a couple of adorable chickens watch all the commotion. Kelly delights in building her own garden beds, and enjoys the learning process that is involved with developing the skills of home food production. This year, she is starting to incorporate aromatic herbs into her garden. Check out the pineapple sage that’s a recent addition!
Kelly also cans and preserves much of the bounty of her backyard so that it can be enjoyed outside of the peak of the season. She even cans her dry beans for easy and quick use during the winter months.
This site is a fantastic place for beginning gardeners to explore and is right next to the Grateful Tomato Garden, so be sure you don’t miss it!
Reasons to visit this site:
New and seasoned gardeners alike will connect with Kelly’s DIY journey to garden enthusiast!
Site features: vegetable garden, berries/brambles, greenhouse, rainwater catchment, seed saving, natural healing plants and aromatics, canning, chickens, coop, composting
5. A Walk on the Wild Side
Located in the historic Marmalade District, Claire’s 122-year-old home is surrounded by enchanting gardens that afford the visitor a little “walk on the wild side.”
The area behind Claire’s historic home includes an organic vegetable garden and an orchard full of dwarf apple, plum and Asian pear trees. The orchard gives Claire’s flock of unusual chickens a place where they can free-range and provide some pest management services. Claire’s flock includes adorable Silkies as well as a few “Turkens,” which are a naked neck variety of chicken that is both heat-tolerant and cold-hardy, making it a good choice for our local climate.
Claire is a trained chef (and the first woman to graduate from the American Culinary Federation program!), so it’s no surprise that her garden features a wide variety of herbs that she uses to infuse health and flavor into her culinary creations. She loves growing things that take little care and re-seed themselves, consistently producing food without a lot of effort on her part. Come and see how Claire embraces the wildness of her mint, arugula, Jerusalem artichokes, and rhubarb.
Feel free to ask Claire how she selected her various types of ground covers, grapes and hops while you explore her darling vintage greenhouse and her 1966 aluminum-sided travel trailer that she cheerfully calls her “clubhouse.”
Reasons to visit this site:
Sure you’ve seen chickens before, but have you seen naked neck chickens? If not, you’ve gotta visit this site!
Site features: chickens, fruit trees, organic vegetable garden, grapes, berries/brambles, greenhouse
6. Urban Garden Company
The Urban Garden Company resides in an 1865 Mormon pioneer home in the Marmalade section of Salt Lake City, and exhibits a breathtaking example of French vegetable gardening. In France, a garden that feeds a family would be called a “potager,” loosely translated as “from garden to pot.” This French garden is designed in a much older and more elaborate style called a “parterre,” which incorporates geometric patterns, elevated beds, and architectural and design elements that make the garden extra productive as well as aesthetically pleasing. Plant selections pay tribute to French design as well as Utah pioneer history.
Dean is the owner and designer at The Urban Garden Company, a landscape design company located in the Marmalade District. Dean received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology with a minor in Botany, is a Certified Master Gardener, and has been working as a landscape designer since 1989.
“Passion takes on many forms, and mine is design.” says Dean. “Growing vegetables in a traditional, repetitive manner inspired me to delve further into creating a more aesthetic and higher-yielding vegetable and cutting garden.”
Dean enjoys showing people that a vegetable garden can be beautiful as well as productive. This special French-style garden has the allure of discovery with every pathway taken.
Reasons to visit this site:
Parterre garden: deliberate and carefully-planned garden layout that is as enchanting as it is productive!
Site features: bees, chickens, pollinator habitat, raised beds, French vegetable gardening, espaliered fruit trees
7. WCG's Green Team Farm
Located just west of The Gateway in the heart of downtown, the Green Team Farm is the definition of an urban farm. Operated by Wasatch Community Gardens in partnership with the Downtown Alliance, the SLC Redevelopment Agency and Advantage Services, the farm serves as a safe, beautiful place for women currently facing homelessness to restore their confidence while gaining job skills and training in organic agriculture. Rooted in the philosophies of Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture, the farm features:
- Infrastructure built almost exclusively from materials salvaged from the urban waste stream, including two 40’ shipping containers housing lockers and an office, produce prep, walk in coolers, prep kitchen, and tool bay
- Solar array
- Advanced composting, compost extract, and biological tea brewing systems
- Urban approach to “Hugelkulture,” a method of building soil by mimicking the processes a forest uses to recycle wood, while conserving water and nutrients
- Vast networks of sheet mulching to suppress weeds while building beneficial fungi
- Comprehensive beneficial insect habitat, clean weed-free garden design, and many novel approaches to “Beyond Organic” agriculture
- Chickens
New to the Green Team Farm this year is a large greenhouse that was used to grow many of the annual vegetables for WCG’s 2018 Plant Sale and is now home to over 75 tomato plants being grown in containers.
Join Farm Director James and crew for a tour around the 1.4-acre site, and learn about the comprehensive design system the team is implementing to restore this once barren urban lot into a productive ecological oasis.
Reasons to visit this site:
The farm is implementing a number of forward thinking ecological strategies to regenerate and restore a battered urban lot, while providing a safe, beautiful place for women currently facing homelessness to reclaim their pride and purpose.
Site features: chickens, bees, vegetable gardens, hugelkulture, greenhouse
8. A Homesteaders' Dream
Celia and Kevin found the perfect space for the urban homesteaders’ dream. They are more than excited to show you around their life of sustainability. Tucked into one of the older neighborhoods in Glendale is their thriving operation that includes a gigantic garden, beehives, chickens, xeriscaping, fruit trees, water catchment, high tunnels, passive solar home heating in the winter, and - new this year- a rabbitry!
Celia and Kevin salvaged material to build the homestead’s entire auxiliary infrastructure in the tradition of simple living and being frugal. Celia oversees the planning and management of the homestead and is a passionate and dedicated food preserver. Celia has been an organic gardener since 1998, and has degrees in zoology and horticulture and minors in botany and chemistry. Celia’s chickens work very hard at her urban farm on garden bug patrol, soil fertilizing and preparation, and egg production. Celia is a former WCG employee and teaches gardening classes for WCG, University of Utah Lifelong Learning, and elsewhere in Salt Lake City.
Check out her awesome blog at simplephat.wordpress.com!
Reasons to visit this site:
This is an excellent example of homesteading. Come check out the possibilities of what and how much can be done in an urban environment.
Site features: homesteading, vegetable garden, bees, chickens, xeriscaping, fruit trees, water catchment, season extenders, passive solar. high tunnel, hoop house, canning, pickling & food fermentation, chicken and rabbit harvesting
9. Rooftop Food Haven
When we asked for folks that were pushing their gardening to new levels, this home gardening team thought higher than the rest.
When Bogart and Sam work together on a project, they are quite the dynamic duo. Together they designed a rooftop garden on top of their garage and, with the help of a contractor, turned it into a reality! The raised bed design offers a fantastic view while gardening.
Located in a Sugarhouse bungalow setting, This relatively small-space gardening site features fruit trees, an organic veggie garden, and pollinator habitat. Bogart specializes in the garden infrastructure, Sam works with the plants, and they both do the pickling and food fermentation!
It’s easy to feel at ease in their beautiful space, with ornamental gardens and plenty of space to relax. If you are trying to think creatively about how to better utilize a small space, this yard and rooftop garden are a must see!
Reasons to visit this site:
If you’re into modern design, this site will make you drool! With clean lines and swoon-worthy hang out areas, this tiny garden has it all.
Site features: espaliered fruit trees, irrigation system, organic veggie gardening, pickling & food fermentation, pollinator habitat, rooftop garden
10. Treehouse Garden
Temma and Ben have one of those homes that conceals a surprisingly peaceful haven in the backyard. Luckily for us, they have invited us to take a look! The first thing you’ll notice in the front are some mature fruit trees and a xeric park strip. Upon entering the backyard at the east end of the driveway, you’ll see their amazing treehouse, built by Ben for their son and his friends to play in. The treehouse is built around a 30’ tall pear tree, putting fresh pears within easier reach of those who dare to climb the ladder! This adult and kid friendly feature is a lot of fun and allows the whole family to climb up and harvest fruit that was previously out of reach.
In another part of the yard, a colorful season-extending hoop house makes great use of their limited space. In the winter, the hoop house gets encased in greenhouse plastic and insulated with straw to allow for winter production of greens. In the warmer months, it’s converted into an open-air veggie garden bed. Composting is also done quite tidily and compactly in the east end of the garden.
The Treehouse Garden is accessed on the south side of the house at the east end of the driveway.
Reasons to visit this site:
Wondering how to make your small, urban backyard a kid-friendly wonderland? This site will get your creative juices flowing!
Site features: composting, fruit trees, berries/brambles, drip irrigation, vegetable garden, canning, pickling & food fermentation, season extension/high tunnel hoop house, small space gardening
11. Food Forest: Feeding a Family
Carrie and her family are passionate about growing their own food because it tastes so good. Their lifestyle maximizes the interplay of diet, exercise and mental health, and they have deemed the half-acre of garden behind their home as their “pharmacy.” They grow 80% of all the food their family eats and have been doing so for the past 9 years.
Their garden features many permaculture aspects as they focus on growing their garden so that it ages with them and becomes more self-managing as time goes on. Various fruit trees and other edibles are tucked into every corner. Chickens, ducks and other small livestock roam the yard, keeping pests to a minimum.
In your visit to this garden you’ll see plum, pear, cherry, apple and nut trees, service berries, many varieties of currants, elderberries, and gooseberries! Carrie is always growing new and exciting things.
Reasons to visit this site:
Come see this amazing urban homestead that produces 80% of the total food needs for the family!
Site features: rainwater collection, livestock, organic veggie garden, permaculture, homestead, horticulture, season extenders, graywater usage, pickling & food fermentation, composting, native edibles, irrigation system, fruit trees, berries/brambles, native edibles
13. Decorative Edible Landscape
We are excited to feature Dea Ann and Randy on the tour this year to showcase the possibilities of front yard gardening! Their beautiful arrangement of raised beds in their front yard has proved to be both functional, providing fresh organic food, and decorative, with their incorporation of flowers, grasses, and perennials.
Their garden is watered partially by a rainwater collection system that is gravity-fed by a pipe to the garden.
Dea Ann and Randy are avid beekeepers, have solar power, and love not only the fresh, organic food they get from their garden, but also the mental benefits that gardening provides and the way that growing food keeps them in tune with the seasons.
Fun fact: The concentric semi-circles of their garden beds act as a giant sundial!
Reasons to visit this site:
Front yard gardening can be a gorgeous addition to your home! This site will inspire you to bring your garden to your front door!
Site features: bees, solar array, organic veggie garden, raised beds, front yard gardening
