Organic Community Gardening

Last year was the first year of the Donation Garden Project that I started in order to grow food for some local charities, the Table food Bank, and Chrysalis Women’s Shelter. The last two summers have taught me a lot about organizing community and volunteer events, long term volunteer management as well as opening me up to a variety of new gardening challenges.

The donation Garden Project originally wasn’t meant to be at all. I had intended to create a rooftop gardening initiative in Huntsville which got downsized to a living wall project when I realized that the resources simply were not there to commit to such a large project as rooftop gardening. Then  after some time the vertical gardening idea collapsed under the weight of permits, bylaws and again, money.

It was around this time that I saw an article in the local paper that was announcing the first meeting of what would become the Huntsville environment group, and later on, Transition Town Huntsville Muskoka. At the meeting I put both my proposals out for the rooftop and vertical gardening projects. They were both well received and there was even talk about fund raising for various ‘green’ projects, these included.

It became readily apparent that any funds that were to come would come at a much later time and so I switched yet again to focus on a more mainstream gardening method, and the Donation Garden Project was born. The environment group volunteered their time and labor to help with the creation of the first gardens. In total we had four gardens tended sporadically by six to ten people on and off throughout the summer. I was overseeing three of the gardens and so I spent my time going to each and making sure that they were kept up.

By the end of the harvest that year (2011) we had collected and donated just over one thousand pounds of food to the local charities. What put us over that mark was an apple picking day that we organized to pick apples from a local untended orchard in Huntsville. Nearly two hundred and fifty pounds of apples were collected and donated.

This year saw a change in the structure of the project with all but one of the garden being taken in other charitable directions. The garden that remains this year is being tended by my mother and myself and has been truly spectacular in both the way it has been tended and how little labour and resources it has required.

We have grown squash, tomatoes, broccoli and potatoes this year, which is one third of the variety that was planted last year. Refining our selection of the plants allowed us to specialize in how each one was planted. Where last year the planting was chaotic and haphazard, this summer the planting was quite orderly with great consideration for the plants individual needs.

I focused on making the garden both low maintenance and water efficient. As it would only be the two of us tending the garden it was necessary to make sure we were not overwhelmed by the work as last year there was five people tending to it. The building site that the garden is located on also does not have any accessible water, so all the water must be carried in from our homes.  We ended up only having to bring in ten gallons of water per week in the beginning and one every one to two weeks as the garden took hold. We also only spent about an hour a week at the garden tending, with most of that dedicated to trimming the grass around the plot!

Forty broccolis were planted ten per row and four rows. Straw was placed around them lightly to help keep the moisture in the soil. The plants grew very well and very fast until a friendly neighborhood groundhog got hungry and over the course of a week ate it all down to the ground. Surprisingly they did make a comeback and have produced a meager helping of greens. Some was harvested but it came so sporadic that most of the small amount went to seed, which the local bees have loved!

The squash was initially planted alongside a chain-link fence and were being trained up it. After some concerns for the fence by the homeowner they were removed from the fence and have since flourished in the ground beside it. There are Hubbard and spaghetti squash planted with about 20 squash growing on the vines at the moment.

The 78 tomato plants were planted using a technique I saw on the internet that was used by farmers in Africa to combat the frequent lack of rain there. It involves creating wide, deep, earthen berms around where the plants are to be placed. Then after they have been planted the crater created by the berm is covered with biomass, which in this case was straw. This allowed any rainfall to channel down to the stalk of the plant and the straw helped to keep the moisture in and prevent excessive evaporation out of the soil. Here is a drawing of how it is done.

In the beginning of the summer after the tomatoes were planted we were watering each plant about a cup of water every other day. That was reduced to about a cup of water per week per plant. This was sufficient even during a six week heat spell and drought that hit in June-July. The plants are carrying so much fruit that we have had to re-stake every plant, including the bush tomatoes. It has been quite the experience with them so far!

Lastly, the potato plot was designed as a straw bed. I came across this technique a couple years ago. It is a garden plot that involves placing newsprint on the grass or earth 4-5 sheets thick. On top of that you spread 4-5 inches of compost or aged manure. The seed potatoes go on this layer, and on top of them goes a very thick layer of straw. We added straw twice in the early summer as it settled and have ended up with a 1 ½ foot thick layer of straw. After this is done it is a matter of waiting for harvest.

The potato plot is one of the marvels of this garden this year. It is a large 15x20 foot plot that has never been watered or tended in any way beyond the initial setup. Harvesting is as simple as pulling the plants out of the straw and shaking the potatoes off of it! I am looking forward to this year’s harvest and have several people waiting to see it as well.

 

All in all it has been a great experience and we are all looking forward to the harvest!