PCG News

2021

PCG Director Roger Kreimeyer has retired from his garden position after 10 years of exemplary service to the garden. Roger was honored for his contributions at the first meeting of the season where he received a token of gratitude for his hard work.
In addition to his duties as director, Roger spent many hours helping with various projects and helped to bring the fledgling garden from its humble beginnings of raw land to the thriving gardens that you see today. Under his leadership, the garden installed a dome for growing during colder weather, garden boxes to accommodate those who are unable to utilize a regular garden plot, improved water lines, new signage, a pumpkin patch where the community can come and harvest a pumpkin in October and much, much more.
PCG is very grateful for Roger’s time and leadership over the past 10 years. If you see him around the garden or in the community, please take a minute to let him know what a difference he has made.



The garden opened March 6th 2021 although classes started in February. Gardeners were quick to prepare their soil for the new growing season while others reaped the benefits (look at that big fat worm!) of their prep work at the end of the last growing season.
Thanks to the lessons learned from the covers class, crops were planted on the first day without fear of Payson’s unpredictable spring season.

If you would like to watch our “Covers” video class or any of the 2021 classes, Click Here.
2019
PCG held its first class of the new season on Saturday, February 16th. Gardeners were treated to a very informative overview on how to start their own seeds including how to decode seed packets, timelines for planting, transplanting, thinning and various other topics.

2018
See a review of the entire 2018 season by Clicking Here
2017
The garden is thriving and lots of good things are happening. Thanks to the generous donation of plants from Plant Fair, teams of gardeners were out in force prepping soil, laying watering lines and planting potatoes & onions for donation to our local food banks.

The fresh, organic vegetables that come from our garden help to provide the recipients with healthier and tastier alternatives to canned vegetables.
Volunteers picked up the paint brushes and applied a good coat of our “signature purple” paint to the handles of some newly donated tools. These donations allow us to offer tools for use by all gardeners and make the gardening experience a little easier. We thank everyone who donated and especially Plant Fair for their continued support of the garden year after year.

Exciting news! The Pumpkin Patch Team has been hard at work preparing the patch for planting on June 23rd and 24th. The team cleared rocks and installed new watering systems giving the old patch a new lease on life! Thank you, Kenny and team, for all the hard work – the patch looks great! Note that we will be planting pie pumpkins as well as our usual varieties this year and hope you will come out in October to support the garden at our pumpkin sale.

Lastly, we would like to thank all of our volunteers who helped with planting, painting, weeding and lots of other tasks that never would get done without them. And don’t forget that our garden is open to the public so come out and visit us and meet some of the people who make it all possible.

Spring has sprung and so have the first crops of the season in the garden! Gardeners are harvesting organic radishes and carrots for the first donations of the new season to the food bank. The first round of planting (see our class on Succession Planting) is completed and the variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers is even more impressive than 2016’s crops! Thank you to all the gardeners who helped their neighbors to build boxes, prep plots for tilling and for cleaning & weeding the area.

With the warmer weather come the weeds and bugs so gardeners and staff alike are keeping a vigilant eye on the gardens to catch any issues early. March & April monitors did a wonderful job getting the growing season underway.

It is not too late to get a garden of your own, grow your own organic veggies and help provide fresh food to the Payson Food banks. Come out to the garden, talk with our staff, take a tour or just hobnob with fellow gardeners. We are truly a community that gardens, shares knowledge and makes a difference to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Question: What lasted all winter and weighed over 400 lbs???
Answer: PCG’S Winter Donation of Fresh Greens to the Food Bank!

At the March 4th Orientation for gardeners, our director, Roger Kreimeyer, welcomed both new and returning gardeners. Gardeners were able to sign up for various teams and Roger introduced them to this year’s staff.

There will be a lot of fun things happening in the garden this summer. In addition to our free classes, we are planning a breakfast, a lunch, a BBQ, another ice cream social and a BIG open-house. So stop by or keep checking our website and we will keep you posted on what’s going on.

The class on March 11th will cover “Soil Preparation and Organic Fertilizer” by Glen McCombs from Plant Fair Nursery. Glen is a frequent contributor to the garden and always has lots of good advice for gardeners. The March 18th class will be presented by our own Mary Schulte on “Getting Started.” The last class for March will be “Planning your Garden” by Chris Jones from the University of Arizona Extension Division on the 25th. All classes are free and open to the public. Just come to the garden by 9am on the day of class.

2016
Our Web Articles:
2016 Growing Season
2015
Our Web Articles:
2015 St. Patrick’s Day Workday
Articles from the Payson RoundUp:
Volunteers Pitch In To Help Community Garden
Payson Community Garden Getting Ready To Sprout

2014
Articles from the Payson RoundUp:
Community Garden Celebrates Harvest
Payson’s Own Pumpkin Patch