You don’t have to be named Michael or have a partner named Michael to engineer a cover for your raised bed garden. After visiting the Bend Urban Gardens Demonstration Garden and checking out our prototypes, these gardeners were inspired to create covers of their own to fit their unique spaces.

Grete and Rob (with their dog, Bear), renters in east Bend, embarked on their first season of gardening in the high desert with help from Bend Urban Gardens.

Greg and his family had grown vegetables in San Diego and Las Vegas before moving to Bend and inheriting an existing raised garden bed at their new west Bend home.

After growing veggies in-ground on her property, Sunny reached out to BUG to help set her up for more success. She used her bank of garden lesson hours for periodic check-ins throughout the growing season to keep herself on track to meeting her gardening goals!

After engaging in a farm storyline unit at school, Fischer and Reid were eager to grow food themselves. Fortunately, their parents thought it’d be a great idea!

After some years of success growing mostly leafy greens in a very accessible, but partially shaded area of her yard, Christine decided to expand her 2021 garden to benefit from more sunshine and expand her family’s at-home food production.

Talitha, the Social Director at Whispering Winds Retirement Community on the eastside of Bend, knew very little about growing plants back in the spring of 2021, but was determined to revitalize the existing on-site garden to create a place for outdoor socializing and activities.

Veronica and Kevin eased into gardening by growing strawberries and herbs in containers. After about a year of living in their historic westside Bend home and working remotely, they decided it was time to transform their south facing front yard into a vegetable garden.

15 year old James had done a lot of research on his own about how to grow edible plants, but due to many complications, was never able to put it into practice. Starting in April, consistent (almost) weekly check-ins with Bend Urban Gardens helped him gain more confidence, and he’s supplemented family meals all season long!

Jill, a long time Kindergarten teacher in Bend, wanted a garden for many years, but it never fit into her life plan until September 2020. Now she says, “My backyard has become a place of contentment and, literally, growth! I had no idea how to put in drip systems, combat root maggots, find aphids, sow seeds, transplant or fertilize. Actually, I had no idea how to garden or grow anything to eat. Now I do.”