Saying Goodbye to a Beloved Demo Garden

As many of you know, our chapter has had a beautiful demo garden at Ekar Farm in Denver since 2021. As Ayn Schmit wrote in her 2022 article: “Ekar Farm, located on land belonging to the Denver Academy of Torah, is a non-profit organization that fosters community and connection to the land and grows food for distribution to metro Denver organizations that are feeding people in need. Ekar is a Hebrew word that means the most important things. For those of us committed to gardening with native plants, that act of healing the land IS one of the most important things.” Read the entire article about the garden’s history here.

Our volunteers designed, installed, and maintained the garden. What started as a field of weeds transformed into a vibrant landscape full of flowers, grasses, and shrubs that attracted birds, bumblebees, and countless other pollinators. Volunteers gathered regularly to pull weeds, chat about native plants, develop friendships, and share our deep appreciation for the little wild space in the middle of a big concrete city.

Sadly, our time at this site has come to an end as Denver Academy of Torah has plans to develop the land on which our demo garden and Ekar Farm sit. In the words of legendary singer Joni Mitchell, they will “pave paradise and put up a parking lot.” Our wonderful members have salvaged pretty much all the native plants to give them a chance at a new life in another location. Soon we’ll be collecting the river rocks to store until a new garden opportunity develops. All that remains is a large boulder that, sadly, we don’t have the means to save. (If any of our readers can volunteer to move it to a temporary location for us, we’d appreciate it! Email us here)

Ekar Farm has been a collaborative, supportive partner for Wild Ones Front Range over these past few years. By the end of 2024, they also have to move vegetable beds and perennial plants to a new location to continue their laudable mission to feed people in our community. We wish them the best and invite you to support their capital campaign fundraising efforts for the new space so they can “get perennials/native gardens in over there as soon as next Spring!” Click here for more information.

As we say goodbye to this demo garden, we look forward to a new opportunity and new partners in a different location to continue our mission by showcasing the beauty of native plants and having a space for camaraderie and education. Once we find it, we’ll share that journey with you too.

This time around, we envision a larger group of actively committed Chapter volunteers being involved with the design, installation, and maintenance of a new demo garden. Watch our events and volunteer opportunities to be involved in the deeply satisfying journey of creating a new garden to showcase native plants and share our vision of Coloradoscapes!