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City gardens
Mountain Home has several "community gardens" scattered throughout the area.
In 2009, Parks and Recreation donated and now maintains the land for the city's community garden.
Jack Murphy has directed the project.
He built the raised beds with funds provided by the city, donations from the Mountain Home Garden Club and Beta Zeta Civic clubs, as well as money raised by the county extension office master gardeners.
Up to 15 master gardener volunteers, area residents specially trained during the annual master gardener classes offered by the extension office, pick one day a month to do a "walk-through" to weed, plant and harvest the garden, which is located along the walking trail off North 3rd East Street near Legacy Park.
There is also a small orchard with pear, peach, apricot, cherry and apple trees.
The public is welcome to pick a few vegetables whenever ripe ones are available.
Community garden organizers caution adults to please watch that their children do not hang or climb on fruit trees as there is a danger to the child as well as the tree.
In addition, master gardeners Vanessa Gil and Jennifer Clark, who worked with the children at the MHAFB Youth Center, were awarded a gardening grant to start a children's garden. The University of Idaho sponsored the grant and provided them with Kim Kovac as their master gardener mentor.
They planned the garden and trained more than 25 children to become junior master gardeners.
The project was highly successful so the project will continue this year.
Another community garden in the city was spear-headed by Tammy Brandenburg with the Juvenile Probation and Community Service department. Her goal was to provide an educational opportunity for those youth who are serving the community as restitution.
Since the mission of the Juvenile Community Service program is to teach those youth how to become productive citizens of the community, designing and maintaining a community garden was a perfect fit, she said.
The Elmore Extension Office and the master gardener volunteers worked with Brandenburg and the juvenile probation officers to train the youths in every aspect of the gardening experience.
The youth helped to build the raised beds, started seeds indoors and transplanted them into the freshly prepared soil.
Every week, they maintained and nurtured plants.
Many of these teens had never experienced the miracle of growing vegetables and discovered "a passionate green thumb they never knew they had," Kovac said.
The garden, which is located behind the courthouse, thrived while county employees enjoyed the perfect place to sit in peace, she said.
The garden also provided fresh food for the Meals on Wheels senior citizen program and a local food pantry.
Anyone is welcome to enjoy the garden, however organizers ask that the public refrain from harvesting as that is the responsibility of the youth.
The USDA and volunteers from Richard McKenna High School, 4-H clubs and Master Gardeners, also helped Donna Chandler create a "People's Garden," located at 795 S. Haskett between the USDA office and Richard McKenna High School. The garden features raised beds, a handicap raised bed and a sitting area.
Anyone interested in working on any of these projects should contact Kim Kovac at 587-2136, extension 509.