Saturday Gardeners
Better Turnout on the Weekends
Left to right: Nathan, Allen, Kevin, and Ralph planting rows of cabbage.
Saturday morning was more promising than Wednesday. There were ten of us altogether, which isn’t bad for a garden that doesn’t really get any exposure in the community. Nathan, pictured above left, actually showed up Wednesday, too, just after I had left with Scott to get their garden calendar from his place. And along with another fellow that showed up after I left, that made a total of six for a weekday, which isn’t so bad, either. On my one weekday afternoon volunteering at Wasatch Community Gardens’ tomato garden, there were only two volunteers ( counting me ) and two staff, so this may be much better than I thought, though it still isn’t the kind of turnout I’d like.
Glenn weeding.
Three things I got out of today: we need tools and a toolshed, we need an area for a compost heap or two, and we need a nursery on site. The tools should be easy enough. I can draw up a toolshed in SketchUp but we’re going to need to build it. Actually, building it is easy, too. What I really need is someone who can cut the wood. I can try to design the shed so every piece of wood only needs one cut, so I can have Home Depot, or whoever, cut it for me. That would be difficult and limiting, but I’ll do what I need to do. I might want to avoid a proper shed altogether and just go with more of a chest. That might avoid any potential building permit issues a shed might present.
Right now, all the tools are supplied by Ralph, I imagine. He’s also handling the nursery duties at his house. I realize the nursery would need daily attention so for now this is probably the best, though imperfect, solution. A nursery would also be a serious structure so there’d be a lot more legalities involved than the shed. Ultimately, I’m just thinking of the ideal setup.
I’m surprised there’s no compost area right now. I haven’t asked why not, yet. It was difficult to intuitively judge the soil because the area is still extremely dry, but what I did see didn’t look great, though it’s obviously working. Also, I have no idea how to intuitively judge soil quality. I’d describe it as extra chunky, and what wasn’t chunky had a lot of clay in it. A compost area can only help. And it’s sure to be the cheapest and easiest thing to put together. I set the scene up in SketchUp where I can see if I can find someplace to put it without changing anything else.
Well, as unemployed as I am, this week has turned out to be quite busy. Luckily, tomorrow I have absolutely nothing to do, which will be a nice change of pace. I really need the idle time to get my creativity going again. And I’m going to need it. Aside from the community garden project, I’ve got to start thinking about heading up the USGBC Student Group at the U for the Fall. It would help if I could actually go the LEED Core Concepts workshop on June 5th but USGBC changed the student price from free to $150, so I’m out of luck.