Down(town) on the Farm

Clearing the Way

On the first day of summer, we arrived to find that the interns had cleared away some of the area at the back of the Farm which will be the future compost/storage area.  Writing it that way makes it sound like it was an easy job. 

But what started out as a thick bramble of roses and bougainvillea (thorny!):

Eventually started to look like a clearing:

And then, miraculously, like this:

So part of our work that morning was to take care of the brushpile, which was unfortunately more than we could compost here at this point, so it will get composted by the City:

We now have an intense dislike new appreciation for bougainvillea I think.  It took a while to fill up the dumpster twice, with Paul's occasional help.

Meanwhile, we were also working on the new clearing to level it enough for our future compost bin.  The composter will eventually look something like this set-up:

Making the most of recycled materials, those are wood pallets and galvanized wire mesh that had a former life as a monkey cage at the Zoo!

It was time for a work break when we had a few visitors stop by the Farm: Karon Klipple, chair of the City College Environmental Stewardship Committee, and idea-woman behind the Farm, and two City College Graphic Design students, Sara and Desiree.  Sara and Desiree were brought to the project to give the Farm a visible 'identity' with signage, branding, and a design for a perimeter fence.  We all sat in the shade and had a brainstorming session, discussing potential names, fence design, and a general future vision for the Farm.

We got back to work, feeling a little more inspired, I think.  Although by the time most of us left, Julia, Paul, Kim and Ben were still working at this:

Future Farmers

This summer on the Farm, we are happy to have four hard-working interns.  While there are usually several extra volunteers working with them on Saturdays, our interns also work two days a week with Julia and Paul.  At the end of the summer their reward will be, in addition to a wealth of gardening knowledge and a fine tan, a $400 stipend.

We'll let them introduce themselves!

"My name is Adam Taylor and I am an Environmental Science major expecting to transfer to either UCSD or SDSU in the Fall/Winter 2009. Basically since High School I have been traveling and taking a broad range of classes from computer science, photography, EMT and finally finding my passion in the sciences.  I am especially interested in learning more about sustainablity and the idea of an Urban Farm fits that perfectly.  I am excited to get my hands dirty and learn as much as possible about farming and sustainability from this internship and I hope that it creates a similar interest in the local community."

"I am Kimberly Lopez and I am currently studying Food and Nutrition at City College and plan to continue at SDSU. I would like to further my knowledge and study Botany, as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine. I am hoping to gain more than adequate skills during this program, so that I may pass on the knowledge and help many start their own organic garden amidst this concrete city. In a time where food is becoming less and less naturally cultivated and available, I believe the ability to grow food efficiently and sustainably will soon become a necessity, and force many to become more aware of the earth we reside upon."


"I am Sara Medina and I am only 17.  I'm a student at Garfield High School right behind City College.  I was interested in the garden simply because I want to find new ways of getting my food on the table.  At school we are also planning to start our own garden, so by me getting my hands on this will help me to be more involved with the High School garden.  I also just want it to be part of something different.  I hadn't heard of urban gardening 'til this year.  So it's definitely a whole new experience."


"My name is Ben Lowrey.  I am 25 and for about 4 years now I have been a vegan.  I decided to go back to school to learn about organic farming because as a vegan I felt knowing how to grow food would be the most important skill I could learn. I really wanted to be apart of something that would benefit the community and teach me about organic farming and this project is doing both."

If you see these folks on campus, or working on the Farm, stop and say hello and tell them what a great job they are doing!

If you are a City College student or a student at Garfield High or San Diego High and you think you'd would like to become an intern during the Fall semester, contact Karon Klipple or Terry Wilson (see top left sidebar for contact info.) for application information.  Or visit the San Diego City College Environmental Stewardship website for details and an application.

Laying Down (on) a Path

We're pretty excited about this project at the Farm.  Really excited.  Ask anyone of us involved and we'll go on about it until compost is coming out of your ears (oh, don't we wish it was!).  It's what keeps us coming back here every weekend, breaking our backs to shovel mulch and wrestle bougainvillea thorns.

One reason we stay excited is Julia Dashe. No one is more enthusiastic about this project than Julia and it's contagious.

Julia Dashe is our Gardening Coordinator.  Her background is with the Edible Schoolyard Project started in Berkeley, and she now works with San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project and with the Terra Nova Garden at Morse High School.  Karon Klipple, the Chair of the Environmental Stewardship Committee here at City, invited Julia to head our own garden project, and then they brought in Paul.  We are extremely lucky to have these two folks direct our work on the Farm!

And work it is!  Last Saturday we laid down a garden path, and began work on clearing out a bit of the bougainvillea at the back end of the Farm for a future storage/composting area.

When we first arrived, we could see some of the grass in spots, looking lush and thoroughly enjoying the compost.

We were happy to see it looking pretty anemic underneath, however, when we began to build the path:

Using rakes, and following the general lines laid out by Paul and Julia, we cleared the layers of compost and mulch away to make a meandering path roughly 3 feet wide (this allows space for the largest wheelbarrow, and for two people to walk abreast), with a larger area at the back tip of the Farm.  We used the displaced compost/mulch to spot target the areas where evil happy grass was poking through.

We then distributed roughly six inches of eucalyptus bark mulch on the path areas:

Until it looked like this:

And because Julia has us so excited about our new fluffy bed of mulch, we decided to try it out:

We encourage you to try this at home!

For larger and more photos, check out our Flickr Album!

Getting Started

Any organic farmer will tell you, your garden is only as healthy as your soil!  On our Farm, we've got our work cut out for us--we're looking to turn a traditional institutional-style manicured lawn into a productive and sustainable farm.

Lucky for us, we have Paul Maschka of San Diego Roots and San Diego Food Not Lawns, to help us with the task.  Under his direction, a group of roughly 25 volunteers got together and took the first steps to build the soil under our future food garden.

As Paul will tell you, many would start by digging out or turning over the existing sod, and hauling it away.  An enormous waste of energy (mostly the digger's) and resources, it is much more efficient to simply cover the grass and use it to feed the soil.

And that's what we did on our first day working on the Farm.  We started with this:

Paul brought several truckloads of compost and mulch from The Greenery at the Miramar Landfill.  We used shovels and rakes to spread several inches of compost over the grass.

It's recommended that you lay down at least 4 inches of compost.  Paul says 6 inches is better.  We tried to consistently lay down 4 inches, but we could see grass peeking through in spots.  It took a lot of spot-dumping to get complete coverage.

Next, we added several inches of mulch on top of the compost.  Here's what the mulch looks like:

After five hours, countless wheelbarrow loads and three pizzas later, we had a beautiful dark brown field of composty goodness.  It smelled fantastic, if you like that sort of thing.

So what happens next?  Well, at this point, it's a waiting game.  The farm will get watered well (we soaked it with a hose, and for the next few weeks, we'll take advange of the in-ground sprinklers), and organisms in the grass, soil, compost and mulch are (as I type this, even) breaking down all the organic material, like the grass.  All that activity will create heat, and the grass will actually get "cooked".  According to Paul, at this time of the year, it could take 3 to 5 weeks for the grass to breakdown so that it can be tilled into the soil.

But there's still plenty to do while we wait.  Stay tuned!

For more photos of our first day's activities, check out our Flickr Album!

Welcome!

Welcome to our farm!

The Farm is a long-term project, hopefully the beginning of many similar projects, dreamed up and executed by the San Diego City College Environmental Stewardship Committee and San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project.

The Farm will provide urban students and the community, who have little or no access to local, organic produce, an opportunity to engage in a hands-on education in sustainable agriculture, permaculture, health, nutrition and leadership.  Interested gardeners will be able to participate in an entrepeneurial activity while they are obtaining meaningful work experience.  Students will learn directly from organic farmers and then share the bounty of the farm with the community.

This summer, with the help of many volunteers from the SDCC faculty, staff and students, Garfield High School students and members of the community, we'll start with our first task: transforming a manicured lawn into healthy soil.

The Farm is located off of C Street, between the Learning Resource Center and the Saville Theater at City College--on this map, we are between the R and the C Building.

As we build our web space, we'll have photos of the Farm, the process and helpful links. 

Come and watch us grow!