An important piece of Mountain Valley's mission is to support clients with opportunities to work in their communities in an independent and inclusive manner. A vocational weaving program and the Mountain Valley Greenhouse serve to raise funds and give employment to some of the clients. Both are in Glenwood Springs. Hollis Vanderlinden manages the greenhouses near Four Mile Road in Sopris Elementary School. She said Mountain Valley got started in the 1970s by parents who needed the services for their own children, showing signs of developmental delays and other issues. The greenhouse came into being a few years later. As we walked among geraniums and marigolds and snapdragons under the arch white canopy of one of two classic structures. Vanderlinden told me how they got here.
MG: They kind of look like they've been here for a while.
VL: Yeah, so the greenhouse has been in existence since 1984. And these two are big. Our two big greenhouse structures were donated and were brought out here from the front range and then reassembled here on the property. So yeah, longer than I've been alive, the greenhouse has been here and functional and producing plants for the community. So it's pretty cool.
This weekend [May 17] there's a chance to wander among the flowers and plants when Mountain Valley hosts an open house. Maria is one of the clients who works in the greenhouse. She accompanied us as Vanderlinden showed me some of the garden starts ready for summer planting
VL: Summer squash. Winter squash, pumpkins. What else? Maria, whatever there you were helping with?
In addition to the flowers Maria loves, culinary herbs and tea herbs such as chamomile, lemon balm and tulsi basil are grown here; and local gardeners can find vegetables that will give their gardens that head start.
VL: ...eggplant, tomatillos, peppers. Yeah, pretty much every annual vegetable that needs to be started a little early for our season here we do.
Maria and other people receiving Mountain Valley services make up a majority of the workers in the greenhouse. And for their work, they receive wages and a sense of value and self-sufficiency. At Dandelion Day last weekend, Mountain Valley kicked off the busy summer season selling their plants grown in the greenhouse and goods from Mountain Valley Weavers in side by side market stands.
HV: So we sold a bunch at Dandelion Day last weekend. And then we'll have an event this Saturday to kick off our Saturday plant sales, which we do every year from mid-May to mid-June. And we decided to make it extra special this year, have an open house from 11 to one on the first day of our Saturday sales, which is the Saturday, the 17th.
And then otherwise, I mean, perennials I sell through the fall 'cause you can plant perennials through the fall, and then house plants we sell year round. So we're always growing something in here. And then we also do the Glenwood Springs Farmer's Market in the summer. Right, Maria? You sometimes come with me to that.
Mountain Valley serves about 150 people across Garfield, Pitkin, Eagle, and Lake Counties at the greenhouse. 12 or 15 clients work or just spend time there on a weekly basis. The open house tomorrow is a new event set to debut at the greenhouse,
HV: And we'll have lawn games. We'll have, you know, picnic foods, we'll have a drawing for-
Maria: Volleyball
VL: What? Volleyball? I don't have a volleyball court. No. We'll have like croquet, lawn bowling and what's the other one?
MG: Cornhole.
HV: We got cornhole, yeah. So we'll have a bunch of games out in the lawn, and snacks and food and, and yeah, we'll do a drawing for one of our hanging basket, one of our petunia hanging baskets.
The Mountain Valley Greenhouse can be found at 700 Mount Sopris Drive in Glenwood Springs.
