This Saturday I got to the garden around 10, and there were already about five men at work. That is the first time I had seen anyone except the service learners out working. While the men did their thing we wandered around and looked at all the sprouts popping up everywhere! It was awesome to see our work lead to something. After a while of looking we got to seeding some more. Today we planted all of the squashes, cucumbers and okra. It was an open garden kind of day so mid way through the work some parents and kids came out to see the garden. Many of the kids were extremely enthusiastic. Two of them even helped the service learners water and plant. It was awesome. These kids were so excited. I hope they can get into the program for the summer. It was amazing to see the kids and somewhat see why the garden is actually there, and why we are our working.

Little Kids!

On Wednesday afternoon I went to the garden at about two. There was an enthusiastic class of children already running about when I arrived. First, the kids had a scavenger hunt to complete. They got to do things like find so many insects, collect seeds, find weeds, find something that could be ate,  and other garden-like things. After the scavenger hunt it was time to plant some flowers. Each kid planted 3 sunflower seeds and 3 marigold seeds. They were even taught how to collect their own marigold and sunflower seeds. The final part of the day was eating! A jerusalem artichoke, a root vegetable related to the sunflower, was cut up for everyone to eat. The kids loved it, and I got to leave with a bag full of this interesting vegetable. It was nice to see how enthusiastic the kids were to learn about food and gardens.

Transplants and Potatos

Last Saturday I spend some  more time in the BUGS garden. Before arriving I was a bit concerned because weather.com was calling for rain, and I even packed my water resistant jacket. Although, I never had to even get it out of the car. Even when I arrived at 10 a.m. it a beautiful day, and I never saw any rain in the three hours I was there. Most of us had our jackets off within the hour.

 First thing we did we plant leeks, red onions and yellow onions from transplants. It was really relaxing just placing little plants in a row and covering the roots. Throughout the fairly long process we all chatted about our environmental class (mostly the test we just took), our majors, what we want to do in the future, where we were from, why we were interested in gardening and the upcoming Earth Week. It was a really nice time planting, chatting and enjoying the sun.

 While a few of us planted the onions and leeks others started on the potato planting. It was interesting to watch them cut up the seeding potatoes to bury in the ground.

 

While all of the service learners were planting Mike, the garden coordinator, laid irrigation around the garden for easy watering all summer. Irrigation tubing was also laid with the potatoes before burying them to ensure they get enough water all summer long.

Before we left we talking about the raspberry bushes, the black berry bushes, and where to find Huckleberries. So of course I left hungry, again. Being out in the garden and think about fresh produce all day, inspired me to head to the store and buy some vegetables to make my own homemade veggie soup.

Planting!

The service time at the BUGS garden started at 10 a.m. The first 45 minutes of the morning was spent having a lesson on everything we needed to know about planting seeds in the garden. I learned all about the ideal temperatures for many crops to germinate, and how today we would focus on the cold-weather crops. These crops could germinate and survive in colder temperature. We went over the different seeds, the spacing each needed, the depth at which they needed to be placed, and how to prep the beds.

First, we prepped the beds. This was done by removing any large rocks from the surface, removing any weeds, and raking over the beds to even them out.

We then spent the rest of the time putting seeds into the beds. Some of the seeds need to only have one row in each bed like the cabbage. Other crops could have two rows of crops in each bed. This day we placed in the peas, beets, carrots, radish, turnips, spinach, lettuce and cabbage.

While we did this we all had a lot of fun talking. Usually the topics led to what delicious things we knew how to make from all the veggies we were planting that day. That defiantly made me excited about getting my own garden planted. Through out the day we also talked a lot about many of the things we learned in the chapter about food and agriculture. We discussed knowing where out food comes from before we eat just anything. Also, increasing our vegetable consumption and reducing our meat consumption was a topic of interest among us.

First Blog Post

Service Learning Term: "Pre-Reflective"

Thoughts of the SL project before diving in... Asking questions such as:

 

What?

Project did you sign up for? What do you already know about the project and what do you hope to learn during your service with this agency?

My service learning project is with the organization BUGS. I know that this organization plants food, and allow kids during the summer to care for the crops, cook with the produce and sell the produce. The try to inform kids of where their food comes from. I hope to learn more about growing food locally.

 

Why?

Did you choose this Service Learning Project over the others? 

I love to garden, but I always move back to Idaho Falls in the summer. The weather there doesn't allow us to start a garden until late May or sometime early June. So I thought it would be fun to be able to get outside and do some garden work before that.

How?

Will your service with this agency help you retain what you've learned in ENVSTD121?

It will really help me remember all of the information on food and agriculture. It will help with remembering about GMOs, organic growing and growing locally.