{"id":342,"date":"2023-03-13T19:59:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T19:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/?p=342"},"modified":"2023-03-13T20:04:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T20:04:55","slug":"week-9-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/week-9-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"WEEK 9 – Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reimagining the Community Garden<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When you walk through the community gardens, you will see many large plots. Over the years of abandonment, neglect, and lack of regulation, the garden plot boundaries have been dissolved. Many current (or absent?) community gardeners have plots 5 times the original size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our proposal is to re-establish the sizes of plots in order to provide access for students interested in growing their own food. As previously mentioned, many students suffer from food insecurity. Our belief is that those who do not have access to healthy, local, and sustainably grown food should be provided space to grow their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We understand that the Farm community gardens are a good walking distance from student housing and that many students are not able to set aside time or walk long distances (many students do not have cars either, not to mention gas prices for those that do). We strongly support the RAD gardens, which are much more accessible to students who live on-campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Farm community gardens have historically been a place to \u201cspread organic gardening practices to people who otherwise would not get the opportunity to learn to love it\u2026\u201d (Welcome to the Community Gardens, 2014) The community gardens might be better suited for students already on The Farm who want to explore their own methods of farming or gardening. There should be plots specifically for student projects, as well as spaces for students to grow their food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compost Plans and Mixin’<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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This Wednesday 3\/8\/23 with the help of the Farm tractor, we were finally able to turn the compost piles that had been previously overfilled. The container wall that was built by a past community garden club is being pushed over, and the signs labelling each section are faded and non-applicable now. Our goal is to allow time for the pile to decompose enough to be usable, and then open it for use. Hopefully, after people use a chunk of it, it will then be easier to move out of the way for a container wall redo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collecting contact information on plot ‘owners’ (history of the gardens)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While searching through old agriculture clubs files and records, we found lots of information on past policies, mapping, and plot ownership; however, none of the files were from the last 3 years. This makes finding out who gardens where difficult, but we are hopeful that our plans will lead to more knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After searching through files, we made posters with the SCARF members we were working with. Among these posters were flyers for students to join the club and posters to get in contact with community gardeners. We also plan to make individual notices for each plot in the garden to further increase awareness. The posters ask that if anyone has or wants a plot, they get in contact with SCARF to share details about which plot they garden (if they have a plot), or ask for one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our goal to re-structure the gardens, we have to think about those who work there. We plan to give a full years notice that the plots will be redone, allowing time for anyone who needs to clean up. This will also let anyone who has already started work in their plots to finish the growing season without being shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community Gardens’ History (digging up old files)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

SCARF (Students for Community Agriculture and Regenerative Farming) and the Community Gardens share a cubicle space in the Student Activities section of the CAB building on the Evergreen State College campus core. This cubicle is open for any SCARF members and has many old documents and files tucked away. This is where we have found the most recent and relevant history of the Community Gardens at Evergreen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Community Gardens were founded in 1982 and originally in Demeter’s Garden (for 18 years). Historically the gardens have held space for student research, community gardeners, and seed saving trials. The Community Gardens have also been utilized by the Organic Seed Alliance as well as GRuB (Garden Raised Bounty) and in connection with the Gleaners Coalition and the Thurston County Food Bank. Fresh produce from the garden was also donated to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a lapse in stewardship, the Community Gardens have fallen into a grey area for management and state of disarray. Now, the Community Gardens are receiving more attention and care than they have in years, and with the full support of SCARF and Food & Agriculture faculty, the gardens are well on their way for a re-design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reimagining the Community Garden When you walk through the community gardens, you will see many large plots. Over the years of abandonment, neglect, and lack of regulation, the garden plot boundaries have been dissolved. Many current (or absent?) community gardeners have plots 5 times the original size. Our proposal is to re-establish the sizes of … Continue reading WEEK 9 – Infrastructure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":929,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/929"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-mantone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}