Summit Community Gardens Preps for Coming Season

Volunteers enjoy the new tables at Summit Community Gardens // Photo courtesy of Sloane Johnson Photo:

PARK CITY, Utah. —Summit Community Gardens began the new year by gathering volunteers Jan. 1 to set up new tables purchased with $2,500 received from the Park City CARES Program. The tables will be used for an after-school program starting this spring and a Dinners in the Garden series this summer, a fundraiser for the garden.

“We had people come out on New Year’s Day and help put those together. It was just wonderful to be in the garden,” said Sloane Johnson, executive director of the garden. “It’s so great, especially now, to get together safely and work on something and be outside.”

Summit Community Gardens, located off of Old Ranch Road near SR 224, is a non-profit, community-based garden. It’s open to the public for free visits, and gardeners may rent plots to grow flowers and produce.

“Anyone that wants to sit in the garden and have a meal, there are tables there, and they are welcome to use them,” Johnson said.

Although it’s winter, Johnson said it’s a great time to think ahead to gardening in the spring. Garden staff will offer assorted virtual classes starting Jan 12 with a novice bee-keeping class. Other classes and workshops for high-altitude gardening basics will follow. For those interested in a plot, there are just five open plots available; when those are rented for the coming season, garden staff will maintain a waitlist in case of cancellations.

After-school programs, which the garden began last fall and which resume in early April, are two-hour programs for 2nd through 6th graders offered Tuesdays and Thursdays. Activities include planting, art, and other projects related to the environment and connecting with nature.

Due to Covid, garden staff had to reinvent how to fundraise.

“We started small intimate dinners in the garden hosted by a local restaurant,” Johnson said. “They cook and serve dinner in the garden. They were wonderful. It’s such a great space to eat outside.”

The first Dinner in the Garden will be hosted by the new full-service butchery in town, Chop Shop Park City, on June 3. The dinners will take place every other Thursday through September. Pricing will range, and tickets will be available for purchase sometime in May.

“Our tagline is we’re there to ‘gather, grow, and learn’ and that has so many meanings. We want to bring the community together and create this community of support, gardening and growing yourself and your food, and helping the environment.”

Find more information about getting involved at Summit Community Gardens.