By Elizabeth Warburton-Smith
While we are still searching for our forever home for the Rita Ranch Community Garden, that hasn’t stopped things from happening at our Houghton Rd location. Recently, we had lots of amazing volunteers come out for a 2 day “Days of Caring” event sponsored by United Way of Tucson to pull weeds, harvest veggies, and learn about organic gardening. All ages jumped in to help and had a great time filling up lots of bags with weeds. Due to covid, we have not had a group garden clean up in awhile and along with this year’s unprecedented rains, the weeds had gotten out of hand. The garden looks great again and we are ready to plant more fall and winter veggies.
Volunteers are what make projects like ours successful. I have never been paid for my time and effort with the Rita Ranch Community Garden. Even though my title is Executive Director, it translates to mean “Lady who works for free!” But it is well worth my commitment as I am inspired by the countless people who come to the garden to spend time in a healthy space and learn about soil, composting, earthworms and growing organically. Their joy and curiosity feeds my desire to inspire as we enjoy the garden together. If I can spark someone’s passion to plant a seed and watch it grow, my legacy lives on. Happy gardening!
Elizabeth Warburton-Smith is the founder of the Rita Ranch Community Garden inspiring others to grow organic food. Elizabeth & husband Chef Greg own Wrapido, a mobile food business selling grilled chicken wraps & signature lemonades highlighting organic & local ingredients. Gardening tutorial videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/RitaGardens Contact Elizabeth: WeLoveToGrow@gmail.com.
