The Community Garden on TV?!

Hey all,

Two exciting things: the garden project has been covered by local TV shows twice this year!
On Monday, April 12th at 8:30PM we’ll be on channel WFMZ 69 on the Navigating your Life show. Myself, Mickey Adelman, Professor Veshosky, and Jason Seigel were interviewed for the Going Green Earth Day special.

(picture from: http://www.navigatingyourlifeshow.net/)

On Earth Day, April 22nd, we’ll be on the show Tempo at 7 :30 and 11:00PM on PBS channel 39. Professor Wilson and I were interviewed and Bryan Hendrickson helped out too.

(picture from: http://www.habitatlehighvalley.org/news_multimedia/)

Surprise–It’s a Shed!

Hey everyone!

You may be wondering about that awesome-looking shed out at the garden! It mysteriously popped up on Saturday (July 12th). This shed was designed and built by a student, Scott Stinner, in the Sullivan Trail parking deck on campus. Then John Wilson brought a big platform truck and we brought it over and assembled it over the weekend.

This shed WILL be available for your use to store things like garden tools and other small items by next week. About half the space inside will be designated for the community garden and half for the student-run garden. We will keep it locked, probably with a combination lock (and I’ll send you an email with the combination).

We will be painting it in the next week or so, and I’ll post again when it’s ready for use. hpim2501

Saturday Mornin’ Gardening

Hey everybody,

We got a LOT of work done today. All the fence posts are in, we cut them to be about even height (~7 foot), and hung wire around the top.

We had a lot of enthusiatic help from students, faculty and staff including John Wilson, Cliff Reiter, Annette Diorio, Art Kney and his daughter Elise, LEAP/SEES students: Scott Stinner, Britta Moore, Tom Golazewski, Paul Creme, and Laura Bochner (and it was her 21st birthday!!)

We’ve still gotta: put up the fencing with fence staples and attach it to the wire at the top with zip ties. I think we’re planning on working on Friday morning to finish it up. Let me know if you can come!!

Thanks to everyone for coming out and helping today!!

And THANK YOU to Derek Smith for the yummy snacks..fruit and cookies from the farmers market! 🙂

Jenn

Fence Building–Again this Saturday!

Hey everyone!!

We had a building day on Saturday thanks for the help from LEAP, the Music Appreciation floor, and some great faculty and staff including John Wilson, Andy Smith, Dave Brandes, and Annette Diorio for all the help! We got about half of the fence posts up, so we’re planning on having another building day this coming Saturday, May 9th at 7AM.

Thanks to Mr. Jim Krivoski for buying doughnuts! 😀

These fence posts are native black locust trees from Prof. John Wilson’s farm.

We finished one side and most of the other. This is where the gate is going to be located.

fencebuilding05-02-09-21

Professor Wilson, Sean Murphy, Scott Stinner working on the corner. In the back: Annette Diorio, Britta Moore, and little Jack working on putting up some posts.

fencebuilding05-02-09-3

Paul Creme, Zeus Wu, and Prof. Andy Smith digging a hole.

Farm Auction!

This past Saturday, Professor Dave Brandes, Professor John Wilson, their sons Owen and Jack, and myself went to the 25th Annual Hilltop Sales and Service Spring Auction. We got there at 9AM sharp and it was freeezing and windy, but we got some neat stuff!

Here’s what we got:

-Wheelbarrow $6

-Lawnmower (old fashioned bladed kind) $2

-Planting pots of all sizes $2

-Auctioneer making fun of me for being excited about the lawn mower..priceless

Total: $10.60!! 🙂

The auction was a lot of fun and we got some great stuff for cheap. Owen in particular loved the all the tractors! And both Owen and Jack braved the cold weather extremely well!

Now we need to find shovels, hoes, and stuff at another auction and hopefully we can get a great price again! If anyone knows of good places to buy implements for cheap, feel free to leave a comment here.

Jenn

Materials are Arriving!

Rain Water Collection barrels

News: Some of the supplies have begun arriving including the deer fence and the two 1,000 gallon tanks for the rainwater collection system. Thanks so much to Bob Chunko and the rest of plant ops staff that helped us unload these things!

Soon to be arriving: seeds ordered from Seeds of Change.

And Prof. John Wilson is providing the posts for the deer fence that will be completed soon!

So exciting! 🙂

-Jenn

PS. I’ve added pictures to the site now. Some from the conferences I’ve described below and some of the future site at Metzgar. I’ll try my best to keep it updated!

VAST 221: Technology at the Table

Some exciting news!

Annette Diorio, associate dean of students and Director of Residential Life is teaching a VAST course #221 Technology at the Table and will be incorporating the garden project into the curriculum. One of the large projects during the semester will be for the students to divide into groups and create a design for the large 1-acre plot that students will be tending. They will be deciding what to plant, where to plant it, and when. After completing their designs, Professors Brandes, A. Smith, D. Smith, and Wilson will be judging the designs and choose the best one (or pieces of them) to implement in the garden.

Tonight I made a quick presentation to the class about the project. I’m very excited to be working with them! =)

Jenn

A New Website!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the Organic Gardening website. I’m glad you’re interested in learning about the garden project or getting involved or even getting a plot! I’ll give a brief introduction to the project here, but for more details check out the “About the Project” section of the site.

The idea for the project came up while working on the Corn on the Quad project this past summer. Professor Dave Brandes, Prof. Art Kney, Prof. Andy Smith and I were working in the fields, er..the quad and thought it would be great to continue the project further and more permanently. Professor Dave Brandes and I wrote a grant proposal to the Clinton Foundation and won a small grant to support the project.

The next semester, Prof. Brandes, Andy Smith, Derek Smith, John Wilson and I worked together with the school administration and plant operations to plan the gardens. It will consist of two sections: a 1-acre plot for students to tend and another 1-acre plot divided into small plots for faculty, staff, and administration to lease. We’ll begin planting this March!

This website is going to be a tool for keeping people informed about the project. I’ll be documenting the progress of the garden through pictures and blogs. I’m hoping to keep the “Meet the Gardener” updated where I’ll put pictures and bios of those involved.

Thanks so much for your interest and support! 🙂

Jenn