Boys ' Girls Club Community Garden

Boys ' Girls Club Community Garden

Summary

WORK ACTIVITIES 2016

Over the course of two weeks in April of 2016, Boys & Girls Club students, 2 volunteers, and I disassembled heat treated wooden pallets and reconstructed them into 6 raised garden beds of varying sizes. Two beds measure approximately 7ft x 4 ft x 3ft and four beds measure about 3ft x 3ft x 3ft. Five additional heat treated pallets were used to install two open front compost bins at the garden site. Then, students assisted me in breaking down and ripping packing tape and stickers from numerous cardboard boxes. The boxes were laid down to cover a grassy area, measuring approximately 23ft x 30ft, and used as a weed barrier.

The raised beds were placed on top of the cardboard, allowing enough space for walkways and an in-ground garden plot measuring 15ft x 3ft. Boys & Girls Club students participated in the tasks of filling raised beds with a mix of topsoil and compost, creating a mounded in-ground plot out of the same mix, and completely covering the remaining cardboard area with a layer of mulch. An additional area next to the compost bins, measuring approximately 10ft x 10ft, was covered in black landscape fabric to suppress weeds and parts of that area were planted as well.

Students helped interplant a variety of herbs, flowers, and vegetables; some were direct sown as seed and some were transplants. At harvest time students picked vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers and produce was consumed on site or taken home.

Garden programming has been held 2-3 times a week, for approximately an hour each time, since the beginning of the project in April of 2016 until present. There was a 2 week winter break taken at the end of December and beginning of January when the Boys & Girls Club was closed for the holidays. During

programming sessions youth have been introduced to lessons from the Junior Master Gardener Handbook, Nourish curriculum, Seven Generations Ahead Fresh from the Farm curriculum, and Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening With Kids. The kids have learned about soil health and microbes, the difference

between cool season and warm season crops and the suggested planting times for each, plant structures, needs and care, the difference between beneficial insects and pests and how to attract the former to control the latter, water quality and conservation, waste, composting and worms, and the affects humans have on the environment. Lessons about seeds were also covered and included topics such as: seed structure, seed

saving and storage, the difference between heirloom, open pollinated and hybrid, how to identify a plant by its seeds, and the difference between GMO and non-GMO seeds. Students have learned about organic growing in comparison to conventional methods and only practiced the former in the Boys & Girls Club garden.

Through interactive lessons from the above mentioned curricula, the youth enrolled at the Boys & Girls Club have further investigated the concepts of local food systems, sustainable agriculture, and land stewardship. The students have been visited by nutrition educators from U of I Extension and Hy-Vee and the Workforce Specialist for Local Food from Lincoln Land Community College. Boys & Girls Club students, along with all staff members, loaded buses, took a field trip to visit a Springfield urban farm, and received tours from farmer Tara Davlin Holcomb and two of her family members. After the tour, all students shopped a pop up farm stand and had their choice of fresh eggs or a bunch of carrots to take home.

So far, grant funds have been used to purchase supplies for the garden including rebar, PVC, remay fabric, black landscape fabric, a wheelbarrow, mulch, as well as salary for the project leader.

RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED SO FAR

All evidence so far is anecdotal and based on my observation and request for a show of hands. As a result of this project approximately 100 youth, who do not currently grow food at home or in a community garden, have experienced working in an urban garden for at least one growing season. The majority of these youth had never planted a seed and were not familiar with things such as planting depth, seed spacing. During this project youth have observed multiple stages of growth until harvest time, which is something only a few kids in the group said they had ever done. As a result, the majority of students are now able to visually identify a variety of plants and state the plant’s common name. Many students can now identify a number of weeds and remove them from the garden beds without immediate supervision.

At the beginning of this project the majority of students were very uncomfortable around insects and worms, would become unruly during an encounter, and some students would want to harm or kill the insects and worms. Now, almost all students will quietly observe the interaction between insects and plants and gently handle worms. Many students can now locate and name beneficial insects found in the garden and have seen the results of natural pest control e.g., a hornworm incapacitated by cocoons of pupating braconid wasps. Students now have a better understanding of organic gardening methods and many can speak about why this way is better for the environment and the choice for many consumers.

Since garden club is not a required activity and participation is not mandatory, some youth would choose to leave lessons early. However, as they got to know me better and saw that lessons started to incorporate food tastings, students started to stay for the entire lesson and look forward to the next one. The majority  of students do not eat fresh vegetables and therefore assume that they are “dirty” and that the flavor is unpleasant. Only a few kids had ever picked a fresh green bean and tasted the flavor.

By the end of summer in 2016, all children participating in the program had harvested and sampled fresh green beans and were requesting them at every lesson. Students incorporated foods such as chard, collards, spinach, and tomatoes; herbs such as basil, sage, and parsley; and edible flowers such as borage, calendula, and nasturtium into recipes that they helped prepare. Some students were hesitant to try new foods, but admitted to enjoying the flavor after sampling. Many students exclaimed that they loved the new foods and begged for the recipe! Students mapped food stores in the community and found that their access to fresh produce increased once the garden was installed.

WORK PLAN FOR 2017

Weekly garden programming will take place 3 days a week and students will continue to explore the topics of food systems and the impact on the environment. Arrangements will be made to have more adult members of the community, who have careers related to food and sustainable practices, visit the youth involved in the program. Documentaries on food and farming will be shown and students will have the opportunity to engage in question and answer sessions. In the 2017 growing season, we plan to expand the footprint of the garden, establish a data collection plan, and expand programming. In addition to growing

outdoors, an indoor aeroponic growing tower will be installed and maintained.

OUTREACH

Photos of this project have been shared on the Boys & Girls Club Facebook page as well as the Grow Springfield Facebook page. Combined, these two social media pages have almost 2,300 followers. Photos and details from this project have also been shared in a private Facebook group made up of approximately

50 members, located throughout the United States, who work with youth in the areas of growing, preparing, and selling food.

During a Slow Food Springfield dinner, attended by approximately 60 people, an overview of the project was shared with the crowd. During the nightly news on August 28 two local news channels, WRSP and WICS, mentioned the project and aired a brief video of footage that was taken at the Boys and Girls Club garden.

This year students will write about what they have learned during the project and selections will be sent to the local newspaper for publishing. Interviews with students who worked on the project will be conducted and recorded and selected written or video footage will be shared on social media. In 2017, we will start a

Grow Springfield newsletter and share stories of the garden with the approximately 200 people on our mailing list. We will also organize a community garden tour in Springfield and the Boys and Girls Club garden will be one of the stops. Past years have drawn 50-100 people to the annual event.

Collaborators: