#694 | MARCH 4, 2025

Volunteers Dig CanDo’s Garden, Part 2

By Carol Dick and Karen Garcia 

Remember the October 15, 2024 edition of the CanDo Connection? Sure you do! In it, we published Part 1 of the history of CanDo’s Garden for the Food Bank. Here, we continue the story with Part 2. We know you’ve been anxiously waiting for it. :)

Winter, 2017-18. Preparing for our first crops in our Garden’s new home on the grounds of the Presbytery of the Redwoods.

By the spring of 2018 we had moved CanDo’s Garden for the Food Bank from the Napa Community Garden (now closed), to our new, spectacular, much larger location on the grounds of Covenant Presbyterian Church. Barbara Pahre, a member of the church, was our liaison as we arranged for our garden to make its new home on the lovely Church grounds in north Napa (and Barb remains one of our staunchest advocates!)

The first year in this garden, our yield was low, marred by a huge infestation of cucumber beetles. We didn’t battle them with chemicals but with hand-picking, row covers, and diatomaceous earth. 

We started using cover crops in winter to give back what the previous year’s crops had taken from the soil. We build up our soil with compost, mulch, topsoil, and added nutrients as needed (like lime and organic fertilizer).

Thanks to advice from Lauren Buffaloe-Muscatine (Napa County Seed Library), Carrie Strohl (the School Garden Doctor) and our Master Gardener volunteers, we also adopted a no-till system. Okay, tiny till. At season’s end, we don’t pull out crops, we cut them down to the ground. We don’t use a rototiller and we avoid disrupting the soil any more than necessary.

As we write this CanDo’s Garden Steering Committee, under the leadership of co-coordinators Chris Ackley and Theresa Reynolds, is planning our 2025 growing season, our 7th in this location. Some things have remained the same over the years:

• We are still an organic, no-till garden.
• We rotate our crop locations each year within the garden.

At the same time, our garden— and we gardeners— have grown and improved since 2018: 

• Soil management has improved enormously as we have learned more over the years. 
• We are learning how to deal with a portion of our garden that has highly acidic soil and is shaded most of the day, and with another portion that receives extra irrigation from the school’s sports field next to us.
• We try to have something growing everywhere, year-round, whether food crops or cover crops.
• Our new irrigation system is solar powered, we have much more control over which areas are watered for how long, and we can turn off the irrigation completely in certain areas as needed.
• We grow food that we know is popular at the Food Pantry, occasionally modifying our plans (and plants) from year to year.
• We now host FREE school field trips to our garden (more on this below) thanks to a generous grant from the Zunin Family Trust. 
• We have a healthy crop of native milkweed and have seen Monarch caterpillars and butterflies in the garden.
• Our garden was a stop on the Resource Conservation District’s Water Wise Garden Tour in 2023.
• We are working on a plan to partner with Napa County Resource Conservation District to plant more pollinator crops and monarch habitat.

CanDo’s Garden in 2020, baby pollinator plants in the foreground; CanDo’s Garden in 2023

Probably the change we love the most is that on what began as a flat, rock-hard, weed-covered space we now have families of quail, western fence lizards, western bluebirds, lesser goldfinches (plant sunflowers and they will come), violet-green swallows, towhees, the rare rabbit sighting (but no damage), and yes, gophers. A red-shouldered hawk often soars overhead and eyes our beds from the top of nearby trees, but our owl box and bat boxes haven't attracted residents yet. Nonetheless, our garden has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Wildlife Habitat.

Since 2014 our team of 20 or so energetic volunteer gardeners has grown, harvested and donated a total of 30,916 pounds of organic produce to the CANV Food Pantry here in Napa. We deliver it within hours of harvest. 

In 2020, through the pandemic, we gardened in masks; we garden in heat and cold and rain, now tending a succession of crops and ground cover year round. 

Since 2022, volunteers Louann Talbot and Karen Garcia have coordinated 23 field trips to the garden, hosting about 700 local students and parent chaperones! Kids have sampled the produce, planted seeds, harvested, weeded, learned about plants and their life cycle, soil, sun and water.

We love this “work.” And no wonder. Not only are we helping ease food insecurity in our community with delicious and nutritious fresh produce, but we are also making friends, learning new information, problem-solving together, and growing as individuals as, together, we sustainably grow food for those who need it. 

CanDo’s gardeners continue to rely upon and appreciate our partners in this venture: Covenant Presbyterian Church and Presbytery of the Redwoods; the UC Master Gardeners of Napa County; Sunrise Montessori School; Barbara Pahre, Luis Padilla, Marcos Garcia, and Salvador; and especially our extraordinary CanDo volunteers. Many thanks to all of you!

Inspiring Inclusion

Women’s History Month 2025

March is Women's History Month. People and institutions around the world join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in history.

This year's theme is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.” It is a time to recognize the historical achievements women have made to help advance us. The work women have contributed to our society has improved our lives in tech, fashion, medicine, science, activism and more. Here, we celebrate women both past and present whose lives and work have enriched and inspired us all.

Inspirational Napa Valley Women— 1840s

These Four Women collectively managed over 35,000 acres in the Napa Valley, beginning in the 1840s. Napa County Historical Society

Top: Kitty Speed Fowler Musgrave (1801-1876)

Below left: Maria Soberanes Bale Peabody (1816-1901)

Below middle: Maria de Jesus Higuera Juarez (1815-1890)

Below right: Juliana Salazar Pope Barnett (1801-1876)

Photos courtesy of Napa County Historical Society

Inspirational Napa Valley Women— Present Day

Downtown Napa Woman-Owned Businesses

There's no better time than Women’s History Month to appreciate some of the many incredible, talented women working behind the scenes in Napa. Join us in shining a light on some of the businesses that line Napa’s historic downtown, as we learn about the fabulous women who made them possible.

 — DOwntown Napa



Inspirational Women in Wine, 2025

• Woman-Owned Wineries of Sonoma. WOW invites you to discover talented and tenacious women in wine. Explore our database of 700+ female vintners across the United States.

• Celebration of Women in Wine: Uncorking Inspiration. Various locations in Napa Valley, March 7 @ 12:00 pm - 9:00 pm. Open to all, this event invites women and allies to enjoy curated tastings, engage in conversations, and network with industry innovators.

• Women in Wine Dinner: A Toast to Women in Wine. Carneros Resort, Friday, March 28th, 6 pm - 9 pm

• Women in Wine. Solage, Auberge Resorts Collection, Friday, March 8th, 4 pm - 6 pm

• Celebration of Women in Wine. ​​Multiple locations, March 5 - March 8. A portion of the proceeds will benefit WINE WOMEN, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing and empowering women in the wine industry. More info here

Volunteer Opportunities & Events to Support Local Nonprofit Groups

Tell 'em you heard about it through CanDo!

Highlights from CanDo's Community Calendar

Ongoing - Napa County Libraries Events Calendar - filter by location

Ongoing - Napa BookMine Calendar of literary events

Until April 15, Tues/Wed - Free tax preparation by AARP Tax-Aide - Napa Library 

​​

Until April 15, Tues/Fri - Free tax preparation by VITA - American Canyon Library

March 4, 3:00 - 5:00 Mardi Gras Movie and Crafts, American Canyon Library

March 6, “Latinas Talk Latinas” an online educational video series. From the Smithsonian.

March 8, 10:00 - 3rd Annual PEEPS DIORAMA CONTEST opens - Napa Library

March 8, 11:00 - 1:00 3rd Annual Open House - Napa Wildlife Rescue

March 10, 6:00 - 7:30 We Are Still Here: Cultural Practices of the Wappo People - Part 2 - Napa Library

March 14, 2:00 - 4:00 - Gather at the Goodman - Meet and Greet the Directors - Napa County Historical Society

March 16, 2:00 - 4:00 - Free Green Screen Film, Unstitched: How the Fashion Industry is Destroying the Planet - Napa Library

March 26, 6:00 - 8:00 - Influential Women of Napa Valley's Past - American Canyon Library

Give!Guide

CanDo Garden

Napa Valley Food Project

Food Rescue

Gleaning Project

Pro-Inclusion Napa

Stow It-Don't Throw It

Neighborhood Reads

New to CanDo? Want to receive this nifty eNewsletter? It comes out bright and early the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, full of ways you can volunteer and connect with community.