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Four years ago, there wasn't a single community garden in Great Falls, but now there are several - and the growing hasn't always been easy.

Last year it was vandalism that struck Amy Grisak and the River City Harvest's Park Place Community Gardens.

This year, it's been the weather.

Grisak noted, "With the adversities - it's just natural to gardening. I think it bands everybody together because we can all win together. With this spring's cold and wet - it took us forever to get the garden planted and get everything going. Then once it was, it was too cold to plant."

The weather might have slowed things down for Grisak and other members of the Community Gardens, but it didn't stop them; she explained, "We all compared notes on what's germinating, what isn't, what you're doing. A lot of the gardeners are employing different techniques - to walls of waters and bags and different means to protect their plants."

And the Community Gardens aren't the only ones battling the elements - local greenhouses are also feeling the effects.

Marcia Bundi of Bundi Gardens said, "You know last summer it was cool...of course there's the economy, so we've been dealing with uneven sales for a couple of years now and also the greenhouses business is so incredibly weather dependent."

Bundi says fortunately their business hasn't taken too much of a beating: "You can always plant stuff. You know as long as it's on its own roots, in a pot you cant plant it up until frost basically. Planting season isn't over although a lot of people would like to start planting at the beginning of May and have it done. Planning patterns have to change."

Grisak said, "By the end of the season when we all get together for our big potluck in October, everybody will share war stories, but I think everybody will have their share of tomatoes and zucchinis."