THE GARDEN STORY

Retail Construction Services, Inc. is dedicated to giving back.

We give back not only to those in need within our community, but also the future generations of this wonderful community. What started out as a great idea has grown exponentially and became an amazing reality. Here at the RCS Giving Garden, school groups, master gardeners, corporate volunteers, and our own employees work together for the common good of teaching children the art of gardening and the importance of healthy eating. Click Here for Full Story.

LOCATION:
Retail Construction Services, Inc.
11343 39th Street N.
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

From HWY 36 - go south on Lake Elmo Ave, turn left onto 39th Street, garden is at corner of 39th and Laverne.
From HWY 5- going west from Stillwater take right onto Laverne (near Fury dealership) garden is on the right at corner of Laverne and 39th street.

See what else RCS and the Giving Garden are up to:
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The RCS Giving Garden

The RCS Giving Garden

6/23/16

June 23rd, 2016 --Latest Garden Happenings!




Borage flowers are a beautiful shade of blue AND they taste like cucumber!  An annual herb, borage is a plant pollinators can’t get enough of them!  We popped some in the garden on Monday near our vining vegetables to give our honeybees a reason to visit!
Borage for Bees!
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Our latest volunteer groups have been working hard to help us stay on top of the weeds that always seem to love our garden!  Here is our volunteer, Bree, helping to lay landscape fabric and weed garden areas with Master Gardeners Deb and Christi.  
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We welcomed the Stillwater School District Adventure Club kids back to the garden on Monday with their new leader, Elizabeth!  After familiarizing themselves with the garden and the plants, they helped us to weed the onions and pumpkins, plant some more carrot seeds, and harvest some baby lettuce.  They brought our first donation of the season over to Valley Outreach on their way back to school.  Before they left us, however, they all completed what we are calling the “Victoria Watermelon Challenge!”  We love to compost watermelon rinds from our re-hydration snack...but only the rind and not the pink flesh!  Another watermelon slice can be taken when the rind and only the rind is left of their first!  We are so glad Victoria is back to help this year, too!
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Woodbury Peaceful Grove United Methodist Church kids return to the garden!


Thanks for coming out to the garden the past two weeks to help Master Gardener Liz Nordling take care of garden tasks!  The plants are so much happier with those weeds removed!  
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6/15/16

A Sunflower House with Time for Me kids!

A Sunflower House with Time for Me kids!IMG_3153.JPG

When working with the smallest helpers in the garden, I love to pull out the largest seeds that grow the tallest plants!  Of course, that would be Mammoth Sunflowers!  The Time For Me preschool kids came out with their teachers Elise and Gracie to see the garden while the plants are still small.  Check out our baby broccoli heads!  

We read the story A Sunflower House by Eve Bunting.  Then we made a sunflower craft followed by the planting of a sunflower house in the corner of our garden.  We planted a variety of sunflower seeds but made sure to spread out the mammoth variety that may get to 12 feet tall!  It will be fun for these kids to visit again to watch the sunflower house grow tall!  We hope to use it as a shady place for a snack in August!  Thanks for your visit to the garden!  Kathy Luoma,MG
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6/2/16

New In The Garden This Year...
Take home veggie bags for our young volunteers! 

We at RCS believe that investing in the youth of our community is very important. We want to show our youngest volunteers how delicious and fun gardening can be! Starting in the 2016 harvest season, we will provide these take home bags for our youth volunteers to take home a bit of our garden to share with their families and learn now to incorporate them into delicious (and healthy) meals! Our employees will even be compiling recipes to share featuring the produce our garden yields!



"Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate!"

6/1/16

RCS on Facebook!
Follow the company that started it all on Facebook! Retail Construction Services’ (RCS) Facebook page is now an additional source to follow and see the progress of the RCS Giving Garden. With photo galleries of our team’s work within the garden and progress updates, you’ll get an even closer look behind the scenes of the company and the people that help create a successful season of growth since 2009. Like their page today!

Click here for our page