Campus Garden 2005 Report

Campus Garden Year-End Report 2005

By Franny Rawlyk

University of Alberta

Intro

            In its third year of existence, the University of Alberta campus community garden had a great year of growth, learning, and production.  The garden plot, located on 89th avenue between 110th and 11th street, is shared with the East Campus Village residential community garden.  Around thirty volunteers helped throughout the growing season to plant, participate in, maintain and enjoy the garden.  Most people involved are students, many of which are international students; however there are some people from the greater community involved as well.  The garden is maintained according to organic practices outlined in our mandate.  The campus garden is managed by a hired director who is appointed by the ECOS office.  Produce is given to anyone participating in the garden and surplus is donated to the Campus Food Bank.

Summer Events

  • Planting. 

      We planted May 28th, a few days after I had been hired.  Since it was fairly late in the season, we bought several bedding plants (tomatoes, green peppers, herbs, marigolds) and our seed potatoes from the Farmer’s market.  All of our seeds were donated to us from Susan Penstone with the Community Garden Network (McKenzie Seeds donated hundreds of last year’s seeds to the CGN). 

      About a dozen cheerful and bright people were out planting.  Before-hand, I drew lines in the soil with a stick, and laid out all of the seed packs according to my plan.  I then just gave general directions and told people to go at it.  Generally, most seeds were planted too closely together; however this wasn’t a huge problem as it just required that we thin the plants later on. 

      There were also several volunteers who dug up the grass that was in the corners and especially along the northern end of the garden.  We laid down trim along the fence as well, in order to prevent the grass from encroaching again.

      See section entitles ‘Garden productivity/crops planted’ for specific plants that we planted.

  • Tree Planting. 

      On June 22nd, we planted several fruit trees and shrubs in the grassy area, just north of the garden.  We planted:

3 apple trees (Norkent*, Sunshine**, Norland*)

4 Saskatoon Berry bushes (2xRegent*, 2xHoneywood*)

4 Blackcurrant bushes (donated from Griesbach Gardens)

*bought from Hole's: Have a 5 year (until 2010) 100% guarantee on trees/shrubs

**donated from Alison Lennie

The blackcurrant bushes were just removed with an axe, without a lot of care, in my opinion, and so they have not taken as well as some of the other plants.  We added a product called ‘Myke’ to the roots of the trees/bushes that we planted.  Myke is fungus that grows along with the roots in a positive, symbiotic relationship.

  • Grade One Student Involvement

      The Grade one curriculum has a section on gardening and its importance.  As part of this, Amy Bissoon from Garneau School brought her class over a few times to play and learn in the garden.  In the beginning, they helped with pulling weeds and turning the soil, and later they drew all the little sprouting plants.  This is great community involvement!  I would love to encourage more classes to come out as well.  They could help with painting signs, watering plants, etc. 

  • Composting Workshop and composting signs. 

      Matt Neil, the summer student working at the John Janzen Nature Center’s Compost Education Center came and taught our gardeners about the do’s and don’t with composting.  A couple from the Faculte St. Jean (Christian Tremblay) also attended; they want to start a garden and composting facility at the Fac.

      Karen Eitzen delivered some compost education signs, care of the city of Edmonton, to display by our composters.

  • Native Plant Garden. 

      We went out to the Old Man Creek Nursery (North of Sherwood Park) to collect many donated native plants from the Edmonton Naturalization Group by digging them up ourselves.  In return, we helped the group with some weeding.

      The plants that we received were: Helianthus, Solidago, Erigeron, Geum, Digitalis, Penstemon, Oenothera.

      One of our volunteers (Claire) is a landscape designer with a particular interest in native species, and so she volunteered to come up with a general plan for the plants.  We planted the native plant be on June 30th along the South fence, at the garden’s entrance.  This area was an old compost heap and we discovered a small beehive during as we dug into the compost.  Luckily they were very docile bees and have since moved their home.

  • Garden Competition. 

      We were able to raise a great deal of awareness of the garden by entering the Edmonton Horticultural Society’s Garden Competition, under the community gardens category.  Three judges (John ?, Karen Lewis-Caron, and Catherine Duchesne) came to the garden July 12 and were guided through the garden and its processes by me (Franny).  We did not place as one of the top three, but they were very impressed by the garden.  In particular, they liked all the learning opportunities that we offered, as well as the communication to volunteers.  They did not like the division between the two halves of the garden and they thought that we had a lot to offer to the greater community as well (not just students). 

  • Nolan’s Prairie Walk. 

      This was one of our most popular events!  Cherry Dodd from the Edmonton Naturalization Group and her friend lead us on an evening walk out at Nolan’s Prairie, near the Waste Management Center.  It is destined for development, but is still native prairie land right now.  She was able to identify and describe virtually every plant that we pointed to!  We all learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  I had suggested some natural mosquito repellant recipes, and one volunteer made some and brought it along for us.

  • Garden BBQ. 

      I purchased all the food from Planet Organic, borrowed a BBQ from a friend, and we all had a good time at the garden.  We also picked some vegetables from the garden and made a salad with it all.  About a dozen people showed up, but many were very late.

  • City Councilors Tour. 

      City Councillors Jane Batty, Michael Phair and Ron Hayter visited the garden July 23rd.  Three gardens from the EHS Garden Competition were chosen for this tour, ours being the first garden on the tour.  Many gardeners from other community gardens also visited the garden.  Alex, host of CJSR’s Dirty Hoe also attended and made interviews, which in turn aired the following week on the radio. 

      This event was great publicity, but also it was a great way to gain more support from the Community Garden Network.  Everyone attending this event seemed really interested in the campus garden and especially how young most of the gardeners are.  They are very excited to see us grow, and are willing to help out in that process.

  • Herb Workshop. 

      Only two gardeners were available for the date that I set for this workshop, so I cancelled it, and rather, just taught the gardeners whenever I saw them at the general meetings, or if anyone asked.  I was disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm for this, but it was starting to get late in the season and many gardeners had become very busy with other activities, outside of our general meeting days. 

      I did paint several signs to mark which herbs are which in the garden so that at least inexperienced gardeners would be able to identify them.  I’m not sure if the paint will hold though.  I dug up the bog rosemary which was planted last year.  This is not closely related to rosemary, it just looks similar.  It is not a garden plant and can actually be toxic in high doses.

  • Canning Workshop

      Susan from the CGN recommended Lee Kitlarchuk from St. Andrew’s community garden to teach us her canning expertise.  Susan also advised us that many of Lee’s practices are not up to the health standards regulated by Atco Gas, ‘Blue Flame Kitchen.’  Regardless, Lee had a great wealth of knowledge.  We held the workshop in a meeting room in SUB.  She had lots of stories to share.  I think some people were disappointed that we didn’t do any hands-on canning there; we just talked about it and shared recipes and experiences.  I was a little frustrated because Lee brought her very old and ill husband, William, with her.  He did not add anything to the presentation, but rather he was in a great deal of pain from the walk to SUB (I met them at the hospital upon their suggestion), and he made sure that I knew how uncomfortable he was.  Overall, I though that Lee was very sweet and I liked her stories, but I do not know if it is worth calling her back for anything year.  (Maybe without her husband.)

  • Harvesting

      This took a couple weeks, as everyone was pretty busy once school started.  I wanted to have a long growing season though, so I left this until later.  Maybe next year, establish a harvest date very early on so that people can plan for it far in advance.  We had lots of food.  We could have given more to the food bank.  Maybe next year, designate one or two rows specifically for the food bank (plant a row, grow a row).

General Maintenance

            It rained quite a lot this season, so the seven rain barrels always had water, and the garden received plenty of water, both from nature and from volunteers.  We set up a watering schedule at the planting day, where volunteers chose a day of the week where they committed to come give the plants a drink, unless it had already rained that day.  This worked really well, especially initially.  As people became more and more busy later in the season, regular watering wasn’t as necessary, as the plants were already well-established.

            Weeding was always a constant chore.  But meeting twice a week as a group seemed to be sufficient to keep most of the weeds at bay.  We used some of the coarse compost from the UofA farm as mulch which seemed to keep some of the weeds down.

Volunteer Summary

            I was quite impressed with the volunteers that did come out.  Many of them came very regularly and were always in high spirits.  Schedules seemed to grow busier as the new school year approached, which made event planning somewhat more difficult.  However, in future years, it would be nice to see more volunteers.  Very few UofA students even know about the campus garden.  Better advertising would increase the numbers.  Events throughout the school year may also raise awareness.

Garden Productivity/crops planted

Plants

notes/comments

Tomatoes

We planted 12 tomato plants and they did incredibly well!  We bought them from the Farmer’s Market as seedlings.  We had a good amount of rain, but unfortunately with the rain came cloudy skies.  We had more tomatoes than we could handle almost, but most did not ripen on the vine; we needed a sunnier season.  So, so, so many green tomatoes though!  And many did ripen on our counters afterwards.  I had tomatoes all season long anyway. 

Zucchini

We planted two from seed (2-3 plants per bunch), and two were seedlings donated from a volunteer.  One of the donated plants was accidentally dug up, I think.  All the zucchini plants did so well, especially from seed.  They had lot of room to grow, could’ve used even more space actually.  We donated several zucchini to the food bank.

Cucumber

Did not do so well.  Did produce a couple little guys.  They were planted from seed (should have planted already established seedlings), quite late.  Not enough growing time.  Oh well.

Lettuce

The lettuce circle received more complements on its visual addition to the garden than anything else.  The lettuce grew great.  We had more than we could eat.  Some lettuce that was planted near the gate was planted way too close together and did not grow as well.  Growth was stunted as it was so close together.  It could’ve been thinned much more.

Radish-white

This was fun because it was a different and new variety for many volunteers.  Had a few worms.

radish-regular

This variety had the most worms and did not do all that well because of it.  We let a few plants grow (of all varieties) and they formed beautiful flowers for butterflies and the gardeners said they like the seed pods even more than the radishes!

radish-French

This variety was most resistant against worms.  They did alright.  Again, nice seed pods.

Kohl Rabi

A new vegetable for many.  Mixed reviews as too how much they were liked.  I liked them :)

Peas

We planted both shellers and spring peas.  I think the shelled peas were more popular.  I think that the peas that were planted near the fence were planted a little too deep and also did not get quite enough sun.  They also had poor (high clay content) soil. They all still produced though. Next year, it would be nice to create a better surface for the vines to grow along (some of that green fencing for example).

Long Beans

These were popular and grew well.  The plants were short but still produced a lot.  Produced like crazy.

carrots

These were planted far too close/thickly.  We had to thin them a couple of times, but they eventually did well and were yummy.  The ground was so hard though that the leaves often broke off when trying to pull out a carrot.  Trowels and shovels helped.

beets

Hmm...were pretty small.  Good greens though.  Should have been thinned earlier on and they could have used more watering.  They were very popular.

Potato-Blue

So many beautiful blue balls of goodness.  These did very well.  I was worried because we didn’t remove the flowers immediately (in order to force the plant to focus on roots rather than fruits), but I guess that we did get them in time.  This was a new variety for many gardeners which was fun!

Potato-Yukon Gold

Did not yield as many as the blue potatoes.  This is likely do to their location in the garden (the south-west end has a cement foundation part-way through, as well as very clay-ey soil).  The few they did yield were a good size though and tasted good.

Green Pepper

We actually got a couple of little guys.  There weren’t many, and not all that big, but I was still impressed.  We needed more sun and a longer growing season would’ve helped!

Spinach

Did not do well at all.  It was planted too late (too hot).  They prefer a cooler germination.  All the plants bolted and had very tiny leaves.

Rhubarb

Did very well.  Earlier in the season, there were many tiny black bugs on the leaves, but they didn’t eat the plant at all, as far as I could see.

Sunflower

The flowers came to head by late August and were very beautiful. :)  Nice accent for the fall.

Aztec Zinnia (flower)

They flowered about the same time as the sunflowers, but they were really hidden behind the tall rhubarb.  People walking in the alley could see them well.  Next year, let plant some flowers near the garden’s entrance.  Also, more colors.  These were yellow flowers.

Money

Sources/donations    

APIRG                                                         

$1,008.50

Community Garden Network                   

All of our seeds!

Fred Blanchard     

4 black currant bushes, many sun lilies

Carl (volunteer)  

2 zucchini plants, many marigold plants

Alison Lennie                                

1 Sunshine apple tree

Edmonton Naturalization Group           

Many native plants

City of Edmonton                 

Educational compost signs

Community Garden Network                                 

8 short-handled shovels, 6 long-handled shovels

Expenses

date

item

store

cost

Jun-03

trowel, weeder, gloves, hooks, pruner, watering cans

Home Depot

61.57

Jun-22

Apple trees (2), S'toon bushes (4)

Hole's

224.7

Jun-30

wheelbarrow, hand hoe

Canadian Tire

70.53

 

Gas mileage (St. Albert, Sherwood Park, nolan's Prairie)

 

9.12

 

Garden Competition Entrance Fee

Ed. Horticultural Society

10

Jul-20

BBQ food

Planet Organic

66.66

Jul-12

Hose repair

Apachee Seeds

2.77

 

Wood chips

Apachee Seeds

73.78

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL:

519.13

Future Plans

  • General:

      Almost everyone would’ve liked some pumpkins in the garden.  Maybe next year?

  • Greater community involvement and exposure and more volunteers. 

      I’m not a publicist, but I do know that the garden could have greater publicity somehow.  We could especially try to inform the general student population about it, not just ECOS volunteers and international students living in I-house.  Maybe more posters, more public events throughout the school year, not just the growing season when most students leave Edmonton.  Brainstorm with your volunteers.  You could ask your volunteers to convince at least two of their friends to come to the garden one day, and ask that each of those people tell some of their friends.  I didn’t really do very well in this aspect this year, so I only have ideas to offer.

      Many people would walk by the garden and ask about it.  I had always intended on created another sign to post by the garden stating our general garden meeting times, what the garden is about, and the garden’s website address.  I think this would be very helpful!

  • The Website

      Be sure to keep the website updated with meeting times and upcoming events.  This could be developed into a great educational tool if someone had the skills or inclination.

  • A better shed. 

      Currently, the tools are being stored under the stairs of the house beside the garden, unlocked.  Our wheelbarrow is stored in the EcoHouse’s sunroom.  We need a proper shed that can allow for more organized tools and easier access for the volunteers, as well as more security to our growing investments.

      First off, if you can find a donated shed, or a cheap, ethically-sound shed for sale, within budget, great!  This is the easiest option.  However, volunteers permitted, you could build a shed for relatively cheap.  This will require a lot of coordination and borrowing. 

      If you have access to a truck (or know someone who does), drive by construction sites and ask if they have any spare wood or materials that they would be willing to donate.  Most construction sites have too much, and it will eventually just be thrown out when the project is done.  Once you have that, you will need enough money to purchase some supplies (nails, screws...).  You will need to borrow supplies such as hammers, scroll saw, level, power drill, etc from volunteers, friends, and family.  And then you just need womyn/man power and you can really have some fun!

  • Budget

      As well as a year-end report, I think that the garden coordinator should also create an approximate budget for the next year.  I found this very difficult to create in my first few days of employment for a job that I did not have experience in yet.  It would be useful as a guide for next year’s gardener, if not as the submission to APIRG.

  • Larger Garden

      Next year’s garden will expand and the garden coordinator will be in charge of the entire garden area (as compared to just half, shared with the ECV residents as in previous years).  We would still like involvement for all those who are interested among the ECV residents.  Contact Sarah Garskey (Residence Coordinator 492-9495 or sarah.garskey@ancillary.ualberta.ca) to be connected with the students and for advertising in the residence

Conclusion

            I think that the 2005 growing season with the campus community garden was a great year.  We had a great crop yield and many useful workshops.  We added to the beauty and permanency of the garden as well by adding trees and shrubs, the native plant bed and a permanent path.  There could always be greater involvement from the greater community, as well as better publicity of the garden, but everyone involved this year had a good time.  I am excited to see what happens with the garden next year!