“One reason why the swiss chard and the artichokes are growing so well could be because they are fueled by caffeine”, Raleigh Dompek of the Garfield Neighborhood Garden said as we walked through the plots he helps organize. “Now that they have that taste for coffee, they’re addicted,” he joked.

At Blue House, we produce about 200 lbs of nitrogen-rich spent coffee grounds each week. Rather than throwing this nutritious plant food in a landfill, we give our grounds to community members, to Castle Hot Springs Resort, and have recently started a partnership with our neighbors at the Garfield Neighborhood Garden.

The mission of the Garfield Neighborhood Garden is to provide Community Members access to garden space, to support the production of healthy food and to promote sustainable gardening practices by educating young people and adults about the benefits of growing their own food. Gardeners can sign up and plant in their plot wat the beginning of the season/assignment of the plot or the plot may be assigned to another use.

The vision for the Garfield Neighborhood Garden is really what struck a chord with our vision and mission at Blue House. Through sponsoring Garden Socials, we want to contribute to this community space to allow people to come together in a collaborative effort to teach and learn organic gardening methods. The garden and it’s loyal community strive to be efficient, use organic methods as much as possible, and improve the Garfield neighborhood through building social networks and healthy practices.