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Camping, Tubing, Bus Shuttle, Sand Volleyball, Bags, Outside Bar/Gathering area, Music, BYOB and more. Request a Legends trip to eat/drink on the patio after your float. It's only $20/person and no worries! It's only $6/person to camp in a primitive spot and $8/person for electric. Solitude with the convenience of being just on the EDGE of Marshalltown!
Location:
Marshalltown Community College
Description:
Workshops on community gardening/urban farming held on June 13, time to be announced, at the Marshalltown Community College, 3700 South Center Street, Marshalltown.
Cost is Free - seating is limited, so please sign-up in advance. TO SIGN UP, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Hannah Lewis, NCAT Midwest Regional Office Director, hanahl@ncat.org, 877-327-6379 (toll free) or 515-288-0460.
Gardeners have long shared the results of their labor --- zucchini anyone?
Now in cities across the United States, they're sharing the labor as well.
Community gardens are springing up in abandoned industrial areas and vacant lots, the rooftops of businesses and the grounds of veterans hospitals.
According to the American Community Gardening Association, there are more than 18,000 of these gardens throughout the United States and Canada and their numbers are climbing quickly.
Andy Pressman, a sustainable agriculture specialist for the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) office in Shavertown, Penn., said the communal gardens help spur neighborhood interaction and development, transform weed-covered lots into green space, and conserve resources because the produce being consumed by families hasn't been trucked from elsewhere.
A growing number of people are even learning how to make a living from these "urban farms," said Pressman, who will be in Iowa June 11-13 giving workshops on the subject. The workshops are hosted by NCAT's Midwest office in Des Moines.
"People are trying to connect with their food in ways we've been so far removed from over the past 20 years," Pressman said.
The half-day workshops in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown and Waterloo, which are open to the public and are free, will include a presentation over topics ranging from pest control to soil remediation. This last is important because many community gardens begin life in less-than-prime soil, including the one in Cedar Rapids, which is taking root on flood-devastated land in the New Bohemia area.
The presention will be followed by a hands-on demonstration of bio-intensive gardening techniques that provide for maximal production in a minimal amount of space.
Pressman is an advocate of the SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) farming model, which uses narrow two-foot-wide raised beds and a relay system of planting to generate returns of up to $50,000 annually on just a half-acre of land.
He said these methods are allowing a new type of beginning farmer, one with an urban rather than rural pedigree, to make a living off the land.
"Basically it's community gardening as a business," he said.
Time:
2:00pm
Location:
Martha Ellen Tye Playhouse
Description:
MCT presents GALA 2010: Retro 70's!
Directed by Tammy R. Lawson with Kay Beach and Gene Beach, this far-out production runs June 10, 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 adults and $5 students.
For reservations and more information, contact Marshalltown Community Theatre, 709 S. Center St., at 641-752-4164 or visit online at http://www.MCTonline.org.
