University of Wyoming Extension personnel will soon plant a garden alongside the Park County Complex in Cody that will do more than just produce food.

“We do hope to use it as a learning tool,” said UW Extension horticulturist Bobbie Holder.

New, wheelchair-accessible raised beds will be constructed in a little-used spot alongside the complex, if all goes according to plan. They’ll be tended with the help of a Cody Conservation District employee and those going through both UW’s Cent$ible Nutrition Program and Park County Drug Court. And once the crop is harvested, organizers plan to share it with a local food bank.

“It’s not going to be thousands of pounds,” UW Cent$ible Nutrition Program assistant Debbie Kelly said of the potential yield from the new garden, “but hopefully we will have something that we will be able to share.”

The new Extension Outreach Garden will also involve the Cody library.

Park County Library System Director Karen Horner said the endeavor fits in “perfectly” with the library’s aim to expand outside its walls. Horner envisions holding library programs in the space, including Story Time for children.

“It’s just really tying in gardening, nature, agriculture with reading [and] literacy,” she said.

Horner also hopes to launch a “seed library,” in which patrons can “check out” seeds in the spring for their gardens and then return seeds from their harvests in the fall. Holder said UW Extension plans to host multiple classes in the new garden, including on how to save seeds; Kelly also plans to hold Cent$ible Nutrition lessons in the space, which is located on the south (Stampede Avenue-facing) side of the building.

The UW Extension employees, whose Cody office was recently moved from the Park County Courthouse to the complex, have been seeking outside funds to pay for the project.

“It’s all depending on grant money,” Kelly told county commissioners in January, “because that’s the only way we can pull this off.”

Between contributions from UW Extension’s partners on the project and a couple private donors, she said they’ve raised in enough money to install a sidewalk, a fence and the raised beds. 

In January, Commissioner Scott Mangold noted Powell’s Community Garden has had issues with people stealing produce, which led to locks on the gate; Commission Chairman Lee Livingston joked they could solve that problem at the complex if “we just electrify the fence.”

In seriousness, though, Holder said the barrier will need to be about 7 feet high to keep out hungry deer, as they frequent the complex grounds.

Part of the overall goal behind the project is to enhance the grounds, which are a popular place for people to walk, sometimes with their dogs.

“There are a lot of people who enjoy that complex,” Holder said

Horner, the library director, said she believes the new garden space will be “a nice calming place to come and be outside.”

In the fall, Kelly plans to seek grant funding to expand the vision further. For instance, she hopes to plant apple trees next year to help create a small urban orchard. The plans also include a pollinator garden near the complex’s pond, featuring flowers and other vegetation that will attract bees and butterflies.

“Over time, this is going to grow a little bit and a little bit more, until we get it exactly as we want it,” Kelly said.

At the Park County Commission’s March 2 meeting, she noted the plans had grown beyond what the organizers initially pitched in January.

“That’s what gardens do, don’t they?” responded Livingston, saying he liked the additional ideas.

“[I’m] glad to see it moving forward,” he said.