Vegetable Garden

Innisfree’s vegetable garden workstation, almost four decades old, operates year-round and uses organic, bio-intensive methods. In the early spring through late fall, the garden plants, harvests, and sells vegetables. A wide variety of vegetables are cultivated on two acres of Innisfree land, including lettuces, spinach, collard greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, corn, cabbage, and zucchini and other squash.

In the winter, the garden begins preparing for a new growing season by mixing potting soil, preparing compost, and planting seedlings in a greenhouse. Seedlings are also planted in an unheated hoophouse to provide Innisfree with early spring greens. Another winter project is collecting, splitting, and delivering firewood to Innisfree houses. Holiday projects include wreath-making workshops and cutting Christmas trees for Innisfree houses.

Vegetable Garden Workstation Head - Connie Welsh

Connie arrived to Innisfree in 2003 as a Sunflower house volunteer and learned how to live with a German, the alphabet in sign language, and the real importance of zinnias. Her lackluster singing voice was keeping the music group back so she went on to assist the garden full time as an intern and eventually as an assistant Trisha and Cabell. After a few years her chicken wings sprouted and hatched the egg operation under the tail feathers of the garden. After a short hiatus in Denver, she is back and working hard to translate veggie garden work into comprehensive therapeutic tasks for our villagers.

When cleaned up Connie enjoys a board game with friends, spinning Innisfree wool, and making balloon animals.

Head Vegetable Gardener - Clark Alexander

After serving in the U.S. Army out of High School, Clark came to Innisfree in 2014 as a residential volunteer. He tried to leave once but couldn’t stay away, and came back as a Farm intern and then was hired on full time as part of the Farm staff. He switched over to working in the Vegetable Garden in 2020 and has been beautifying Innisfree’s gardens alongside coworkers ever since. In his spare time Clark enjoys drawing flora, fauna, and the occasional Sesame Street character and you can find his work scattered throughout the village.

contact: veggies@innisfreevillage.org

A man is sitting and sorting through vegetables from the garden. He is smiling. He is wearing a grey shirt.
Kale growing in a greenhouse.
A woman sorting filling a pot with soil for the garden. She is wearing sunglasses and a black shirt. She is in a greenhouse.
A woman working in the garden with mountains in the background. She has an orange cat standing on her back.
Two women working in the garden. They are crouching down while they work. Mountains are in the background. They are both wearing hats.
A person wearing a blue shirt and pink mask is washing lettuce from the garden.
A man in a hat and black shirt with colorful writing is holding carrots he harvested from the garden. He is smiling at the camera. There are mountains in the background.
A woman in a blue cardigan and striped hat is picking berries from the garden.
A man is standing in a greenhouse. He has a wheelbarrow full of weeds he has picked.
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