Urban Thistle Farm & Market

08/02/2026

Magic.

It's the word that keeps coming up over and over as we meet people at the farm and they experience Urban Thistle.

Magic.

But, it's not magic. This feeling you get as you wander the abundant Food is Free garden, sit on a bench under the shade tree, smell the flowers, play one of the instruments scattered throughout the garden, take in the birds and bugs and animals, or enjoy a cup of coffee in the Ground-Up Coffee Shop.

It's community.

It's the feeling of belonging - of being a part of something that feels good to you.

That's what we are growing at Urban Thistle Farm.

Community.

Have you expereienced Urban Thistle Farm yet?

Come see us any time at 1014 Glenarm - the former elemenatry school known as North Casper Elementary and before that, Lincoln Elementary.

This property has been serving as a community hub for more than 100 years and, it's ready for the next 100.

Come for a tour. Come for a coffee. Come pick free produce from the community garden - grown for all to enjoy - no questions asked.

Share our page. Share our work. Share the love.

07/30/2026

Come through tomorrow!

We have everything priced to MOVE

Lots of office desks, a few nice tables, lamps, throw pillows, and so much more!!

Cash and card accepted.

Make us an offer and take it away.

We are cleaning out the old storage areas and want to give you the DEAL of the DAY. Come by the Urban Thistle Gym (formerly North Casper Elementary School) for some awesome deals.

Cash and Card accepted.

Most items $5 and under and NO REASONABLE OFFER REFUSED.

Glass doors (interior)
Closet doors (Bi-fold)
Desks
A kitchen table
Craft table that folds into a cabinet
NEW Armoires
Lamps
Lampshades
Giant beanbag
Landscape stones
Wood 2-drawer file cabinets
MCM metal file cabinet.. and more!

Get your dealing ready and come see us this FRIDAY, July 31 from 8-5 at 1014 Glenarm.

07/29/2026

Have you seen the garden lately?

07/29/2026

HXP.org crew worked at our Food is Free community garden at Raven Crest Apartments today.

07/28/2026

We are cleaning out the old storage areas and want to give you the DEAL of the DAY. Come by the Urban Thistle Gym (formerly North Casper Elementary School) for some awesome deals.

Cash and Card accepted.

Most items $5 and under and NO REASONABLE OFFER REFUSED.

Glass doors (interior)
Closet doors (Bi-fold)
Desks
A kitchen table
Craft table that folds into a cabinet
NEW Armoires
Lamps
Lampshades
Giant beanbag
Landscape stones
Wood 2-drawer file cabinets
MCM metal file cabinet.. and more!

Get your dealing ready and come see us this FRIDAY, July 31 from 8-5 at 1014 Glenarm.

07/28/2026

Our Food is Free Community Garden exists for EVERYONE in the community.

It is open to all, 24/7/365

It’s located on the south side of the Urban Thistle Farm at 1014 Glenarm in north Casper.

If you want to pick something to enjoy, you can.

🥕💚🍓😘

Our methods are alternative.

Most “community gardens” lend land for a small price to individual growers to use. Each of those growers then decides who gets the food they grow.

We are proud of the barriers we remove for good food access. With everyone helping, this is a loving way to take care of each other.

07/26/2026

Pests aren’t pests. Everything is interconnected.

07/26/2026

The gardening industry makes a lot more money selling solutions than it does teaching observation. It’s easier to market products than patience. Easier to sell fear than ecology.

If every insect is a villain, you’ll buy another spray. If every w**d is an enemy, you’ll buy another herbicide. If every yellow leaf means your plants are starving, you’ll buy another fertilizer. I hate to be the one to tell you this but nature has never worked that way.

A healthy garden isn’t one where nothing gets eaten. It’s one where everything has a role to play. Aphids feed ladybugs. Caterpillars feed birds. Decaying leaves feed fungi. Fungi feed the soil. Healthy soil feeds your plants. The goal was never to eliminate life. The goal was to create enough of it that the system could begin taking care of itself.

That doesn’t mean never intervening. I still protect my crops when I need to. I still hand pick pests, prune diseased leaves, and occasionally step in when something gets out of balance. The difference is I no longer ask, “What can I buy to fix this?” I ask, “What is my garden trying to tell me?”

More often than not, the answer isn’t sitting on a shelf at the garden center. It’s already crawling, flying, burrowing, blooming, or decomposing somewhere in the garden. The more I learned to trust the ecosystem instead of the marketing, the less work I actually had to do.

Turns out, nature had a better gardening plan than the people trying to sell me one. Who woulda thought she knew what she was doing all along!?

✌️ & ❤️
Paul Avellino

07/26/2026

The gardening industry makes a lot more money selling solutions than it does teaching observation. It’s easier to market products than patience. Easier to sell fear than ecology.

If every insect is a villain, you’ll buy another spray. If every w**d is an enemy, you’ll buy another herbicide. If every yellow leaf means your plants are starving, you’ll buy another fertilizer. I hate to be the one to tell you this but nature has never worked that way.

A healthy garden isn’t one where nothing gets eaten. It’s one where everything has a role to play. Aphids feed ladybugs. Caterpillars feed birds. Decaying leaves feed fungi. Fungi feed the soil. Healthy soil feeds your plants. The goal was never to eliminate life. The goal was to create enough of it that the system could begin taking care of itself.

That doesn’t mean never intervening. I still protect my crops when I need to. I still hand pick pests, prune diseased leaves, and occasionally step in when something gets out of balance. The difference is I no longer ask, “What can I buy to fix this?” I ask, “What is my garden trying to tell me?”

More often than not, the answer isn’t sitting on a shelf at the garden center. It’s already crawling, flying, burrowing, blooming, or decomposing somewhere in the garden. The more I learned to trust the ecosystem instead of the marketing, the less work I actually had to do.

Turns out, nature had a better gardening plan than the people trying to sell me one. Who woulda thought she knew what she was doing all along!?

Wise words from Paul Avellino