Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Roots

Welcome to the Augie Acres blog! So, it seems like things are finally getting rolling with our garden plots. We've put in a lot of work lately, and now we even have some baby plants growing! For those of you who might not know, this is our first growing season in our attempt to develop a student-run garden on campus. A lot of students have been working on this project in various ways for about six months now, so it's rewarding to be able to see some tangible results.


We are the caretakers of approximately one acre of land located on the northwest corner of campus. These lots have been vacant for years and nothing permanent could be build on them because of soil subsidence. We hope to grow vegetables and fruits for the campus community and curb the run-off and erosion on these pieces of land. Hopefully, nearly all of our produce will be returning to the campus community via the college's dining facilities and through a farmer's market-esque produce sale.


Currently, we have snow peas, snap peas, swiss chard, spinach, beets, red radishes, white radishes, herbs, red onions, white onions, red potatoes, and white potatoes planted. We also have planted a butterfly garden, a mixed flower garden, and begun digging a rain garden. We hope to plant some more varieties of produce in the coming months, but the weather has not exactly been helpful lately.


Here are some photos:



These are the plots before any work was done. This photo was taken the day we cleaned up the plots. We found tires, bottles, an old TV, a fence post, and an ornamental cement seahorse.




This is the day we tilled up the plots. Our friend and awesome-at-making-things-happen-guy, Jim, lent us a hand by bringing in his tiller. You can check out his operation's website at: http://www.wesleyacresproduce.com/




This picture is a snapshot of what we have growing now. This picture was taken on May 2nd, about two weeks after we tilled and began planting.


Hopefully we have some nice weather for a few days and can get some more produce planted. Also, we need to develop a bunny-repellent that is an effective way to keep bunnies away. Any ideas?

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