Build Day Success!

Yesterday's build day at the Gaynor Campus Garden was a big success.  The rain held off, we had over twenty volunteers, including teachers and students from two of the building's schools (The Green School and Lyons Community School), a storage shed and five raised beds were built, berry plants were planted, and carrot seeds were sown.  Sprout feels incredibly lucky to have such energetic, helpful volunteers who made quick work of the many tasks throughout the day.  We're also lucky for the financial support from our family members and friends who helped us raise over $4,000 for the garden!

I'll save my words and let these pictures do the talking.  Thanks to Judy G. and Gia Storms for taking such great photos!

Our volunteers got to work quickly

L-R: Coquille, Katie, Heather, and the two PhD candidates that dominated the circular saw 

Coquille kept her mind on the compost; dried marigolds = browns

Katie, Nathan and Coquille -- garden instigators

Rebecca (aka Booters) took a work break to pose.  She volunteered two days in a row!

Heather (far right) led the construction team.

Students working on the shed's floor

Street beautification effort

Street beautification:  Manhattan Avenue

Garden club members

View from garden's north edge

Heather + Katie = Sprout

The brothers Strouse

Leroy the pug was a welcome visitor

Raised bed building

raspberry plant planting

blackberry plant planting

Robin working hard

Nathan and our wheelbarrow

Thank goodness for the Urban Workshop folks!

 

Garden Club plants strawberries

Slowing down at the end of the day

What shall we plant?

Everybody wants to sow carrots

Throughout the day the students and some of the volunteers discussed the possibility of strangers harvesting strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.  The strawberry plants line the southern edge of the garden while the raspberry and blackberry plants line part of the western edge, Manhattan Avenue.  The garden location is somewhat protected from the street, considering the 6' iron fence on one side and the school building on two of the other sides.  But the south side is open to Stagg Street Walk, which residents use to get to the busier Graham Avenue, walk their dogs, and access the city park next door.

Sprout has often discussed the lack of security of the garden, which is one of the reasons for building the shed -- to store garden tools and supplies.  Yet, we decided against enclosing the garden with a locking fence.  So many community and school gardens around the city are enclosed, likely in hopes of a safer growing space and place to store gardening supplies.  We are interested in changing the existing infrastructure for city dwellers' interactions with edible gardens by creating a place with accessible food.  We realize we're taking a risk, but we're interested in discovering the outcome.  Maybe this is just the beginning of a new type of city garden, a new type of urban agriculture, accessible to all.  Of course, we hope this accessibility will encourage active engagement with the care of the garden, as well!  Only time will tell.