USDA Educational Garden

USDA Educational Garden - Albany

Joint effort by the WRRC and PGEC

Part of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack's People's Garden Initiative

In collaboration with:

Gospel Flats Organic Farm

Ocean View Elementary School

UC Berkeley Field Services

Welcome to our Garden! With the mild winter we've been having so far, the winter crops of chard and garlic are doing well. We removed the netting and will be rotilling and planting some more winter crops soon.

Our donation total for 2011 was 2252lbs (that's over ONE TON!) of produce to local soup kitchens and food pantries.

If you are in the building, we invite you to join us and volunteer to tend the garden. If you are not so nearby, you are still very welcome to visit us online and watch our garden grow! For more info on our Garden, please see the Garden Info page.

Volunteer Requests

We will be planing some more winter crops and doing a bit of rototilling. Because the timing is erratic and must be worked around inclement weather, volunteer requests are only distributed via the USDA Garden mailing list. If you are in the building and interested in volunteering, please see the Volunteer page to get on our mailing list.

Latest Garden Announcements & Highlights

2/9/12: netting is off of the garden and the garlic and chard are doing well. The leeks are a little anemic but with some water and some hand weeding, they should recover well. The plan is to rotoill the areas not covered by a cover crop and plant some more winter crops.

10/17/11: We're in the news! Mary Flaherty has written an article about us in the local e-newsletter, The Albany Patch. For that and other articles about our garden, please see the Articles and Press page.

10/4/11: The People's Garden Initiative is doing another wonderful webcast garden seminar series this fall with topics on canning, seed saving and many other useful things. Taking the courses is free but you have to register. If you are in the building, you don't have to register, we will be showing them in one of the conference rooms. See this page in our Gardening Tips section for more details!

9/29/11: Had one of our biggest harvests to date- 400lbs of pumpkins, squashes and other crops, all donated to CityTeam Ministries soup kitchen.

9/15/11: Had a great harvest with the 3rd graders from Oceanview Elementary school. The geese have eaten most of the brassicas (kale, broccoli, cabbage) and left us plenty of “fertilizer” in return. We still have crops of winter squash, tomatoes, and lettuce to look forward to.

About the Garden

Garden Wishlist (can you donate any of these items?)

Garden Info (History of Garden, Donation Info, What we grow)

Photo Galleries (animated gif slideshows)

F.A.Q.

Volunteering (we love volunteers! be first in line for produce!)

Photo Story of Garden's beginning

Planting Layouts

Articles and Press

Acknowledgements

Helpful Info

Gardening Tips and Guidelines (Bay Area climate-specific planting guide links and files)

Recipes (we'd love to see your recipes too!)

Website Updates

10/4/11: New schedule for USDA Garden Initiative Fall Webinar Series is posted in Garden Tips section