Seed Money: Help Us Grow a Cold-Hardy Orchard and Medicinal Herb Garden

As Fall blew its autumn-hued leaves through the North Fork Valley, a passerby walking their dog past Arbol Farm would notice the shape of a butterfly emerging from the central garden space in the front fields of the property. 

Home to our Just Good Food programming, the Mariposa Ascendente Regenerative Gardens and Classroom has already grown into a gathering place for workshops and celebrations for gardeners, regenerative agriculture enthusiasts, natural builders, farmers, and farm lovers throughout the region. 

We have a lot going on in our garden space and classroom, and we could not have done it without your and the community’s support! 

Now through December 15, we are participating in the Seed Money campaign.

SeedMoney.org has been a funding partner since our earliest work to manifest this community growing and learning space. This winter, with donations that will grow through the SeedMoney match, we plan to start on another phase of installation. 

This year, we are fundraising to build a fire pit for winter gatherings at the garden and signage to more easily identify plants, entrances, pathways, etc. This spring, we will complete the orchard and medicinal herb garden plantings. 

About the Gardens & Classroom

In the early frosty months of 2024, Elizabeth and the crew at Arbol Farm carefully reconstructed the timber-frame outdoor classroom structure. Crafted by Ben de Leiris and which we first invited the community to join us to build, this beautiful structure has returned as centerpiece, and the butterfly’s body, at its forever home with wings now emerging as petals and vegetables. 

Colorado Farm and Food Alliance’s butterfly garden is a demonstration of a plethora of regenerative agriculture principles and techniques expressed through an artistic lens. The top wings feature cold-hardy peach and plum trees that are accented with companion plantings of 

Nitrogen-fixing comfrey, bird’s favorite chokecherry, clover ground cover, nutrient accumulating motherwort, and pollinator-attracting wildflowers. Alley cropping is demonstrated through “row cropping” of strawberries and annual crops like winter squash. The bottom lobes of the butterfly wings feature a medicinal herb garden created in collaboration with The Learning Council to the left and a native pollinator garden designed in the schematic of a monarch butterfly wing pattern on the right side. The vegetable production beds are garnished with swales, native pollinator plantings, and culinary herbs. 

With the generous support of Caren von Gontard of Arbol Farm, we also were able to install a grape arbor that shades the winding pathway made with pavers from Delta Brick and Climate Company. The pathway is an important feature to the garden and includes stamped pavers that honor some of the many generous supporters who have helped to make this educational space a reality. 

With winter blowing back into the Valley and the gardens put to sleep for the season, our minds move towards cozy snowy nights around the fire with tea, hot chocolate and stories of our local history and agricultural legacy. 

For our third consecutive year, we are participating in the Seed Money campaign, a family-operated foundation that sponsors a fundraising platform to help non-profits like us fund educational garden spaces. With the help of the community, we are raising funds to install a sunken fire pit for winter workshops, gatherings and storytelling. We are planning educational signage that will showcase the common and scientific names of the pollinator and perennial plantings. In the Spring, we will need tools for maintenance and volunteer days at the garden, and saplings to complete the orchard wings. And we will use more Delta Brick pavers to put a floor under the classroom.

Whether you are able to contribute $15 or $1,500 to the demonstration garden and classroom at Arbol Farm, your donation will help us complete all these things as we prepare for the 2025 season and years to come. 

Please take a moment to visit and donate at our SeedMoney page before December 15th!

You can always visit our fundraising page at any time of the year to support community-based education, more resilient farms, and community connections to network and learn about regenerative agriculture and other rural skills. 

Thank you for your support! We hope to see you at a storytelling event or workshop in the near future!

Email Elizabeth@colofarmfood.org with any questions, to inquire about future events or to suggest a workshop idea.