Logicgardenblog's Blog

The semester has been chalked full of surprises, challenges, and successes.  Over the break I finally got the hoophouse tilled up with the help of a good friend.  The spinach is growing quite well, the romaine is a bit slow still, and we harvested the beets.  Half of them anyway.  So, all in all the season/ semester was pretty good for a first run.  I feel we have had a lot of interest and that is one of the main things.  We will certainly need interest to keep it going.

With the end of the semester in sight, I feel lucky to have been able to work on this project and meet so many people around SIU that normally I wouldn’t have met.  We have a really amazing opportunity as students and as American citizens to use our time here wisely to learn about things that will help solve the complex problems humanity is going to have to deal with in the future.  I feel if a university can produce students that are well rounded in their skills, abilities, and knowledge they are coming closer to fulfilling their social obligation as cultivators of young minds.  The skills that we are learning out here, not just for growing food but for learning to work together, complete a task in the face of challenges and perhaps opposition, and basic understanding of the life processes that take place everyday in order for us and everyone else to live is so important. 

The garden is looking quite nice these past few weeks.  The beets will be able to be harvested next week, and hopefully the carrots soon after.  Timing with planting is going to have to improve, because some of the food is coming out when students are going to be gone.  This is the kind of thing we will have to work on in the coming semesters. The tilling in the hoophouse has proven to be much harder than I thought it would be.  The tiller broke, and I haven’t been able to get another one.  So, we only have one row planted in there so far.  I hopefully am going to be working on getting all of these things in line so the next line of people that come to work on this garden will have an easier time getting everything in order.  The other girl who works at the Vermi building with me has been talking about what the agriculture department is going to do with the acre behind the hoophouse.  It is going to be another logistical mess pulling all of it together, but the rewards will be great.  She and I hopefully will be able to get the building straightened out so that it can be a farm shed as well, and get the worker situation figured out.  While all of this is a great idea, organic farming takes labor.  So I think this will be the biggest constraint we have.  We will have to find a way to get more people interested in coming out and helping and decide how a leadership position can be created in light of the serious budget cuts our university is facing.  While all of these issues are serious, this is the kind of change our university needs if it is going to be competitive in the ways of catering to the new generations needs, wishes, and academic programs.

This week and last were good ones for LOGIC.  We had 10 volunteers, our biggest number yet, out last Sunday to spread compost and get the beds in the hoophouse ready to be planted.  It was really nice to see enthusiam about the project and watch everyone work together.  Last night we were able to begin planting the first seeds in the hoophouse. 

We also had an article written in the daily newspaper for our university about what we are doing and hope to do.  This coming Monday we will be sitting in Lentz dining hall during dinner to try and spread the word as well.  A couple of weeks ago there was a green fair in which many clubs, organizations, and departments around campus and the community came and set up booths to offer information about different things they were doing.  We had a table, and it was really fun to be able to talk to a lot of people and to see the variety of organizations and their booths.

I think this is a vey promising project and hope that many students will be able to use the space for socialization, stress relief, and a general feeling of community.  I think this garden can not only provide a resource like local, organic food but can also serve as a much needed resource for students to learn experientially about sustainability and connect with each other and the earth.  I believe these are some of the biggest isses we need to address if we hope to make the changes necessary for a sustainable campus and world.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to say a few words about LOGIC’s beginning before we enter into a new realm with this project.  The garden was a collaboration of thought from students in the Geography department and other environmental organizations around campus.  Worried about the state of agriculture in our state of Illinois, the students took it upon themselves to garner the support to get a plot of land and begin an organic garden with the aim of producing food for the dining halls.  Situated at the Vermicomposting builiding, the garden’s goal is to close the loop on the campus food supply by producing food that is nourished by the compost created by the waste products from the same dining halls the food goes to and water collected from a rain water catchment system.

Although the production capacities of the garden are small, because of the initiative the pioneers of the project had we now have a hoophouse that is ready to be planted in.   The students wrote for a grant and a hoophouse was installed that will allow us to extend our growing season and grow greens and herbs for the dining halls during the winter.

The effects of this project have stimulated a growing appreciation for organic practices and food production around campus.  The Agriculture department has tilled up an acre behind the hoophouse to grow more vegetables for the dining halls and has the goal of getting the acre certified organic.  Another class is in the works of creating a master plan for the sustainable landscaping of the surrounding area incorporating food with landscaping plants and pathways.  The site at the Vermicomposting center has the goal of becoming a sustainability showcase, with many different aspects involving including energy production, food, and rain water catchment.

In light of beginning down the path that the students before us so carefully crafted, I must give my upmost gratitude and respect for their vision and ability to pull it off.  Thank you to them, and good luck to us.

Planting in the hoophouse begins next week.

This week was kind of slow for LOGIC.  They are putting in electricity for the hoop house and have had all of their equipment in there so I haven’t been able to do much.  But, the plants in the garden outside are doing well so far.  It is really dry and warm for October, but fortunately we have a continous source of water.

Today I was out there and met Dr. Walters for the first time.  He is tilling up the back acre behind the hoop house to plant veggies for the dining halls.  He also said he hopes to get it certified organic.  That would really be a great step for this project.  I hope that it all works out.  In the absence of more words, here are some pictures of what is going on.

Fall is here and the weather is finally something that can be enjoyed, in my opinion.  The plants are coming up and loving the cooler weather I’m sure.  I meant to have some pictures for this post, but when I got out to the garden the other day with my camera I had left the memory card in my computer at home.  So next week there will be more visual representations.

The hoop house has yet to be tilled, but next week I will get the ball rolling on that.  It is going to be a project getting the plan together, the beds measured, compost spread, and then tilled up.  So if any willing workers would like to come be a part of it, we would welcome your help.  I will post volunteer days on this blog early next week.  It is going to be a great space in there and we are going to be able to grow a lot.  I have been reading a lot about the crops we are going to grow, so I hope that with a little background knowledge and a keen eye for observation the plants will do well.  We also now have a water hookup outside so we are going to be able to install drip irrigation, which will be a huge time saver and water saver as well.  The rain water catchment system is working well for our water uses, but it needs to rain to fill it back up.  Send some good thoughts out for that one.

That’s all I have for now.  Today at 5:30 we are planning to meet at the garden to do a variety of things, so if anyone would like to come please do.  For those who do not know, it is located at the Vermicomposting Center on W. Pleasant Hill Road, past Evergreen Terrace Apartments.  Everyone thinks the garden at Evergreen Terrace is ours, but it is not, you have to go just a little bit farther down that road.  Look for the big building on the right with the Vermicomposting sign and the hoop house in the back.

Thanks for reading.

This week was hot.  90 degree days at the end of September.  You have to love them.  However, the beets we planted last week have started to come up.  I watered them twice a day this week and by the end of the week they started to show their pretty little heads.  The carrots are still underground, but they are slow to germinate so we will have to be patient with them.

The hoophouse is up.  It is big and beautiful.  Those guys worked hard putting it together, piece by piece.  Next week I will begin calling around to see who is in charge of getting the ground tilled up and fertilized with some vermicompost.  That is really all I have to say today.  I am grateful for this opportunity to work on the garden, and I think there are many wonderful things that will be stemming from it and other ventures around the university.

Today was a big day for LOGIC.  We have seeds, row cover, tools, and the first fall plants have been planted.  Chef Bill gave us our beets, carrots, lettuce, and spinach seeds.  Then he and I went to Rural King and bought shovels, hoes, potato forks, weeding tools, rakes, and a couple other things.  Then we had our first volunteers come out.  There were four lovely people who showed up and we planted beets and carrots in the front beds.  The hoophouse is coming along.  The poor guys working on it had to put it together piece by piece, they’re working hard to get it together.  With any luck we’ll be able to put all their hard work to good use.

I have cleaned out a corner in the Vermicomposting Building so that we have a space.  We have what we need to make this a great season, I am excited and very hopeful.  Thank you so much to Kim, Jason, Nick, and Tony.  Ya’ll are awesome.

So, the seeds are coming in soon and the hoophouse should be up soon as well.  That is exciting.  All of this planning will start to become a reality.  I have been thinking about ideas of how to “market” the garden lately and thought that I would make a nice sign and print up some informational brochures so we can set up a table in Lentz dining hall in the future and talk to people about the garden.  That is going to be a work in progress though because right now there is not that much to say nor write about.  But that will be changing.  Lots of stuff to do this week as far as getting things ready to plant and be organized.  I’ll write more about it later.

We finally got some rain from the remnants of a hurricane.  And the trees are beginning to make their change.  I noticed the first red one today.  Fall is so lovely.  And to follow up from the last post, the football team won 70-7 I believe.

Today I took some pictures and thought I would put them on here as a way to see where we came from.  With any luck, things will move forward with great clarity and precision.  Below is the future site for the first hoop house.  It should be going up soon.

What a perspective this angle of the front plots could provide … hopefully in the future it will be a lovely contrast.

Today I made a flyer so hopefully we can get some tools donated.  I will copy it and get them hung up next week.  I also found some row cover finally that fits the dimensions we need.  Johnnyseeds.com worked out for me.  Organized some more of the binder for information at the site such as crop information, volunteers, emergency numbers, and climate data.  Got a date to talk about some compost for the beds and hopefully will be getting seeds soon.  I can’t think of anything else for now.  More later … hoping this thunderstorm will come in.  Also, in unrelated news the Salukis opened their new football stadium tonight.  I was not in attendance, but I’m sure many people were.  Hopefully the guys played well.  That’s quite a bit of pressure.