My Name is Kristen, and I'm an AmeriCorps Volunteer...

Day 8

My morning started with an AA meeting. I got introduced to the class of veterans who is supposed to be the target audience for the garden. It was surreal to attend an addict's meeting as an observer. It went almost exactly as it happens on television shows. An introduction: "Hi, my name is _(fill in your name)_ and I'm a _(fill in your addiction)_" followed by something like a mix between a murmur and shout as each person's "Hi _(fill in your name)_" blends together. I had no idea what I should say when it came to me. I looked at my supervisor and then back at the rows of veterans looking back at me and said, 

           "Hi, I'm Kristen and I'm an AmeriCorps Volunteer" accompanied by an awkward half wave and smile. 

After the introduction I walked out to the garden and went back to work on the carrots. The weeds that used to cover the entire area where the carrots were are now gone! You can clearly see the rows of baby carrot tops stretch down the width of the garden. I also spent a little bit of time with the tomatoes. As a reward for all my weeding work, I allowed myself to prune three tomato bushes. I had stopped pruning them last week when I found out the ones I had been pruning were determinate tomatoes. 

Now, before I don't know probably Monday, I had no idea you should prune tomatoes. Or that there were two different kinds of tomato plants: Determinate and Indeterminate. Determinate tomato plants have a set number of fruit they will produce. They stop growing once the fruit has been produced and generally bear all of their fruit at once. You don't really want to prune these or I guess you will be taking off potential fruit bearing shoots without really helping the plant at all. 

Indeterminate tomatoes on the other hand, act like vines and will continue producing until the end of the season. These are usually what cherry and salad tomatoes are. I think I am more excited for these guys to start going wild than the others. I like the idea of being so overwhelmed with tomatoes that we still have enough left over to give to the veterans after donating some to the food bank. 

I had one veteran out today. It was his first day and he was very chatty. We weeded between the carrots and it was really nice to have someone new in the garden with me. I told him about the compost bin and he said he would like to help (I'm not quite sure how much of it is caring about the garden and compost though...) and I told him I would love to have his help and that he should bring friends! We will see if I get any more visitors tomorrow. 

In other news, I dropped off four wooden pallets at the garden this afternoon so that we can start work on putting the bin together in a few days. I just need to get some zip ties and we will be on our way. Maybe this project will spark some interest with the veterans and I can give them a little spiel about how compost works and what to put in to it to get the most out of it as quickly as possible. I want to make a little plastic sign for the bin so that people will know what can go in there and what can't. Maybe a group of veterans could be in charge of compost. They could turn it a few times a week and put new things in it. 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Day 7

The rain started last night and didn't let up until this afternoon so I couldn't be in the garden today. It isn't good to garden when it's wet since you don't want to compact the soil. So, there isn't too much to report garden wise. A grand opening is being planned for when we put up the sign for "The Healing Ground." The local paper should be there and we will get some pictures. 

I am learning more about the bureaucratic red tape associated with government agencies. I don't know if any of my grand ideas will be within the bounds of the rules. But, I do know that I have found some wooden pallets that I can use to construct a compost bin! As soon as I get them to the garden I can have a little compost bin building program for the vets! We can learn about how to make a bin and then, what goes in it to make good compost. 

The opportunity for veterans to come out and garden has now been extended to the full five hours I am up there. This should encourage more participation. 

I have also started making a "Starting a Garden" PowerPoint so that I can compile all of the things I have been learning. I'm excited to start building the bin! I'd like to get it finished by the end of this week. 

I apologize for the short, dry post. I hope to have more excitement for you tomorrow!

Company

Day 6

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Mine was filled with Cherry jam and almond butter. I made jam out of the cherries I picked on Friday and it is pretty tasty! But, the weekend was soon over and back to the garden for me.

I decided to try riding my bike to work today...it's 10.5 miles round trip... But, it wasn't too bad. I think I will try and do it every other day. We'll see how long it lasts though. 

I actually got some new company in the garden today! I was sitting with the carrots, carefully parting the

delicate stems to find those savage weeds and yank them out of my precious produce, when my supervisor and another visitor joined me! He was very enthusiastic about the garden. He quickly grabbed a hoe and got to work on the weeds that had crept between the bell peppers. A veteran came out as well and chatted with me about the recovery program a little bit. He boasted that he was graduating from the program tomorrow and thanked me profusely for my work. He said it was easy to get into your own head when you are in the rehab program and coming outside to the garden was very helpful for him. It was great to hear how the garden was helping the vets out. I wish more would come though. I'm not sure how to encourage attendance but hopefully if I set up some programs people will come. 

In talking to my other participant I found out that the garden hasn't been advertised much to employees at the VA and there have been a few false starts in the past. I think it might be fun to hold a grand opening once the benches and gravel (or mulch depending on a few things) have been put in. That way everyone would know about it and feel welcome to come out and garden. If I could get the local paper to do a story on it too that would be great! We could get some publicity and perhaps potential donations. 

I have been trying to brainstorm ideas for fundraising so that the garden could afford mulch or any other possible necessities. I thought that we could grow seedlings and then sell the extras for a few bucks. However, there isn't really a place for the seedlings to be grown inside. Unless we used the shed where the garden tools are being held right now. However, it is pretty small so I don't know how well that would work. Then I remembered I had been showed a greenhouse at the CC on my tour and was told that it didn't have anything in it. It might be fun to have a program with CC students to take care of the seedlings with the vets. The vets would get to have a companion "on the outside" and we would have a place for seedlings. I don't know well this would really work though. In my head it's cool but it might not work.

Ladybugs are all over the garden! I think that is a good sign. I remember from somewhere that they are supposed to be beneficial. One nearly crawled into my eye though so they can be dangerous!

Cherries and Hoes

Day 5 

I went to the garden this morning prepared for some hard core weeding. I started at nine and didn't leave the garden until 12:45 when I had to go because I wanted to help with the cherry gleaning. The veterans were supposed to come out for an hour but none of them did. Maybe on Monday. Instead, my supervisor came out and helped me weed the South side of the fence so that river rocks could be dumped there later. I think once the rocks are added, the garden will start to look a little more put together. Benches are going to be put in as well for those who would rather simply take in the splendor of the garden. It was a blast getting to know my supervisor a little more. She is very open and excited about the garden. She doesn't have much experience either so She is looking to me for information. When I asked her what her thoughts about an industrial approach to gardening rather than a sustainable one she didn't seem to say which she really preferred but told me that the garden was as much mine as it was hers. I'm hoping that means I can really go where I would like to with it and do my best to keep it a self sustaining garden. 

My ideal garden would have a productive compost bin so that when new plants were added compost wouldn't need to be purchased. Either use square-foot gardening techniques or wide-row gardening so that space was used as efficiently as possible, and be productive throughout the entire year without depleting the soil. The veterans would be involved in projects like making the compost bin and taking care of the compost so that they would have a greater connection to the garden and what happens in it and want to spend more time there. I would have little classes about planning the next seasons crops, taking care of seedlings, how to go from seedlings to transplants, compost, maybe even canning or cooking classes. I would love to promote healthy lifestyles by modeling a healthy garden that is sustainable. Very little would go to waste. 

Most things for the garden were donated. Money was spent on the fence and that is about it. So, the budget is somewhat non-existent. I just don't know who donated what and how you get in contact with people who want to donate! What I want most for the garden right now is some mulch to keep the soil as moist and cool as possible and keep weeds down. Maybe there is a way you can make your own mulch? 

I spent a while weeding a row of carrot seedlings. Sometimes while I'm weeding I picture myself as a giant tearing up the innocent garden civilian's trees. Anyway, four rows of carrot seeds were planted and then weeds just exploded around them so it was time to yank those puppies out while making sure I wasn't uprooting any tender carrots. I won't lie, I accidentally pulled out a few. But, the carrots are going to need to be thinned anyway so really I was just doing some forward thinking. Time seems to just slip away when you are busy dodging spiders and tidying up the rows! I told myself I would leave at noon which turned into 12:30 which turned into 12:45 when I really HAD to leave. 

I drove to El Sombrero where the cherry glean was supposed to be held. I thought it was strange that we were going to a Mexican food restaurant to get cherries...but maybe that was a convenient place to meet? It turned out that El Sombrero had four cherry trees in it's parking lot drooping with beautiful bulbous cherries. The deep red fruit glinted in the sun peaked shyly around bright green leaves. I had never seen a cherry tree before and it was a wonderful first! We started on the lower branches and then moved up to ladders. Cherry picking was slower moving than onion sorting but something about it seemed soothing. At first, we were using scissors to cut the stems because if you pick the cherries wrong you will harm the tree and it won't be able to produce the next season. I abandoned the scissors when I heard one of the other volunteers say that the proper way to pick was to twist the stems. I felt up the stem and found the notch where it met with the tree, pinched it and twisted. Perfect! It looked just like you would expect a cherry to. We spent about 2 hours picking cherries and ended up with a little over 165 pounds! In case anyone is wondering the cheapest Cherries I have seen are about two dollars. The most expensive: four dollars! That's a range of $330 to $660!! If each family got about a pound of cherries, that's 165 with fresh, local cherries! Amazing! I love it! 

Fun fact I learned about myself today: With most things I feel much more comfortable using my bare hands than having them covered or a tool. I don't use gloves when I pull weeds because I can't get the same feel for where the plant stops and using my hands instead of the scissors was so much easier and I could be much more precise. 

I am stoked for the upcoming week spent in the garden and pitching ideas to my bosses! I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and if you have any questions don't hesitate to post a comment! 

Welcome Weedin'

Day 4

I was able to spend the morning getting more information about winter growing in the Pacific Northwest. It seems that some veggies like Spinach, Kale, Carrots, and Beets do pretty well in the winter. A hoop house might be needed but I think it would be great if the Vets could still get out and garden in the winter when, in my opinion, you would need more cheering up with the clouds constantly looming. Maybe creating a hoop house could even be an activity that isn't super gardeny for those veterans whose thumbs are less than green.

I sketched a quick prototype for a winter bed with Carrots, Beets, Leaf Lettuce, Kale, Cabbage, Spinach, and Broccoli. The beds could be in the middle of the plot and then a cover crop would sit atop the rest of the garden doing it's Nitrogen-fixing magic.

This is about half the garden.

After lunch I decided to head up to the garden and take inventory of the veggies that had already been planted. After driving through the maze that is the Walla Walla VA, I finally found the garden on top of a hill next to the church. The sprinklers which looked like they had been set up on tripods were spraying water over half of the garden. The well-trained Whitman student in me was horrified and wanted to run to find the spigot and turn off the water. I didn't though, because I still felt like a guest. Instead I opened the gate and a cozy little sign greeted me. It got a smile out of me and I continued into the plot. I went around the rows writing down what was in the garden. At first I tried to dodge the sprinklers water but it was so hot I just welcomed the occasional sprinkles on my back. After jotting down the plants and drawing a quick sketch I took some pictures and began to inspect the plants a little more. I looked at the strawberries that grow along the edge of the fence. Some of them already had happy little blossoms among the leaves. Unfortunately, from what I've read, the first year of strawberry plants is not very productive at all. They look cute at least. I moved on to the cucumbers which all looked pretty good but had a few dead leaves and weeds which I cleaned out. While I was tidying up the dirt I heard some one shout a name and turned around.

Strawbabies

Two people were walking towards the garden. It was my supervisor at the VA and an employee she was showing the garden to. I introduced myself and she asked if I would like to meet her boss. She said she had come out to turn off the water that had been running since 10 that morning. My heart sunk a little bit. I'll talk to her about watering tomorrow when I go back during the time the veterans will be there. She took me around to her office and I learned a little more about who I would be working with.

The veterans are part of the only remaining in-patient program at the Walla Walla VA; the rehab program for drug and alcohol abuse. Interest in the garden was really high but has been lagging lately. Hopefully, I can promote it with fun activities in the garden! Composting can be fun right?

I went back to the garden after my short tour and returned to weeding. There were a ton! The sign was not kidding. But, it felt good to be outside and not under fluorescent lights. I weeded and pruned an entire row of tomatoes and realized I am going to have to make friends with those creepy looking spiders that hang out around the plants. You know the ones? With the REALLY long legs and big bulbous butts that are a greenish yellow. It makes me jumpy just thinking about it. But, I will make with peace with them by the end of the summer...maybe. After three hours I decided it was time to get back to the office. On my way back to the Ag Center I saw a sign that said the temperature was 96 degrees! Crazy! I hadn't really noticed how hot it was.

When I got back my supervisor had finally returned from all of his conferences and meetings. I asked him a few questions and he told me that I was basically going to make a "How To" about my position for who ever will be filling it when I leave. Which is exciting and scary at the same time. He didn't seem to care that the sprinklers were sprinkling in the middle of the day. This made me begin to wonder what his stance about food production was. Maybe he doesn't think organic gardening is right for this job. From what I have read the best and least expensive watering method for a garden is watering by hand. It promotes deeper roots that protects plants from droughts. We shall see.

The Googling Goes On

Day 3

Today was the first day this week that has really felt like summer when I stepped outside the house in the morning. The morning was spent researching complimentary gardening and gardening techniques that get the maximum production given the space you have. I learned the stereotypical way of gardening, with rows of single plants, is incredibly inefficient.  A better way, that also better utilizes complementary gardening techniques, is wide row gardening. Say you have a four foot by 16 foot raised bed. Instead on running two rows of tomatoes down the entire 16 feet, you would run three rows down half of the bed (eight feet) and each row would have four tomato plants in it. This way you get the same yield but have half of your bed remaining to plant other things. The wide row method saves the soil from being tramped on in between rows. Usually the beds are made wide enough so that you can reach across it to weed without damaging anything.

It is pretty cool how much chemistry is involved in gardening. I don't think it is necessarily something that every gardener has to completely understand but it is interesting none the less. I can't wait to get out into the garden and apply the techniques I have been reading about! I've had some ideas about informal classes for the veterans about composting and maybe even canning. I still don't quite know the scope of my position so I just keep writing down my ideas. I found out today my supervisor at the Ag Center intends to take me out to learn how to do soil testing some time in July. I was really excited to hear this because soil testing was one of the things I jotted down that the VA might want to consider doing. Testing the soil tells you what nutrients and compounds are in the soil and pH. This is helpful to know so that you can take care of the soil and the plants that use it.

I started my other blog for the Ag Center today as well. I am thinking it will be more about the garden than my whole experience in general since it will be on the website and all. One of the IT guys stopped in to introduce himself and we had quite a chat about what he had in his garden at home. I think I've found a good conversation starter.

The best part of my day was probably getting to sort more onions after work today though. It was good to be out in the sun talking with people and getting my hands dirty. The onions we sorted today were significantly more deteriorated than Monday's batch. A few were so squishy that if you accidentally squeezed one in an attempt to lift it out of the pile it would squirt juice on your hand. Not pleasant, but I still enjoyed it. People complained about the smell but I didn't think it was too bad. About the same as before. I found myself wondering what other vegetables would smell like as they began to rot. I guess I'll get to find out soon! There is something I never thought I would find myself wondering. I think that is one of the things I like about doing service. You find yourself considering things you never thought to consider.

I was surprised at the age range of people volunteering tonight. I think I was the youngest there but at least half were college aged or just graduated. There were a few older women as well which I thought was very nice. I was curious about what made them want to come out and sort through rotting onions but didn't ask. Perhaps next time. It only took an hour for eight people to sort through 6 bins full of onions. Pretty amazing seeing as it took us probably an hour and a half to two hours sorting one bin on Monday!

My VA supervisor is scheduled to get back tomorrow so I think I will go up to the garden at some point, take some pictures and get a better feel for it. I think the garden right now isn't employing any of the fun space saving strategies I have read about and I can't wait to talk to my supervisor about them. Maybe I'll even draw up a plan for the fall harvest or spring plants!! Anything to get me off the computer. I have come to realize I can NOT stare at a computer doing research for 10 hours a day. I need some people interaction and sunshine. No More Fluorescents! No More Fluorescents!

Settling In

Hi!

My name is Kristen Whittington. I am the new Summer VISTA AmeriCorps Associate working in Walla Walla with the Agricultural Center of Excellence at the Walla Walla Community College. I am a rising junior at Whitman College so I have been in Walla Walla for two years. This is my first summer living here though. I am originally from Austin, Texas. I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with the Harvest Against Hunger program which promotes sustainable food practices by coordinating with local farmers and food banks. Excess food that farmers have is donated to local food banks then dispersed. 

The program I am working on here in the Wallas is with the local VA which has recently installed a therapy garden for the veterans to work in. Because the VA is a government institution its kitchens can't use the produce from the garden. Instead, the bounty the veterans tend to will go to the BMAC (Blue Mountain Action Council) food warehouse, be repackaged and distributed to local food banks. Its pretty exciting to be working on a program to help the community become self reliant and aide veterans in recovery as well! 

DAY 1

Yesterday was my first day at the Ag Center. I seemed to have come at a time when everyone went out of town to attend conferences. But, I got tours of the office and the college, filled out my paperwork and got to work brainstorming what I will be working on this summer. 

After lunch I met with Casi (pronounced KC) who is the year round VISTA member. She seems like a kind person and is so easy to talk to. I can't wait to get to know her better and feel lucky to be working with her. She took me to visit the VA garden. As we drove up to the garden I was surprised by how large it was! It was surrounded by a huge fence to keep out the deer and looked a little out of place. Hopefully, with time, love, and some good bean plants and deer resistant climbers it will blend in better. Casi told me that planting had started a little late so most of the plants were transplants and not grown from seeds. There were a few benches next to the gate and hoses snaking along the side of the fence. Right now here is what has been planted(at least what I remember. There will be pictures soon!!):

• Watermelon
• strawberries
• Cucumbers
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Peppers
• Corn
• Tomatoes

Now, I am very new to gardening. In fact, I have tried to garden maybe three times in my life. None of them worked out. I blame the sweltering Texas sun and clay soil. It probably had something to do with the fact that I tried to start planting in the middle of the summer too... Anyhow, this whole experience is going to be an incredible learning opportunity. In the past two days I have done so much research on caring for gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Everything from composting to cover crops to harvesting. I'd like to leave this project with the tools to have a successful fall and winter season and a good idea of what to do in the spring. 

After taking a look around the garden Casi took me out to Bob's farm. Bob is a sweet onion farmer. Walla Walla is famous for it's sweet onions. We were visiting Bob because he told Casi he had 6 bins of bad onions he needed to get rid of. Bob looked like he could have walked out of a chapter in The Grapes of Wrath. He was wearing flannel, jeans, round sunglasses, and a brown paper-boy hat. He was covered with a film of dust that looked like it has permanently settled into his pours. He had a sort of hardend charm about him. A loveable, slightly cranky old man who had spent his life growing onions.

When the onions are harvested the "bad" ones are taken out and the good ones are put in five (or ten I'm not sure) pound bags. The bins were probably 4 by 4 foot boxes filled with onions that were giving off a sweet, sour, cinnamony, oniony smell that was definitely not the way onions should smell when you buy them in the store. When we started sorting out the rotten ones I found that most of the onions were still good. True, a few felt hollow or were sickeningly mushy but, a lot of them were good enough to use. We had probably 15 cartons of "good" bad onions and 3 really bad ones. We loaded them up in the truck and took them back to the BMAC warehouse where we piled them onto a palette and left them to be weighed. 

My first day ended on a high note despite the confusion that had started the day. 

DAY 2

This morning I went in to the Ag Center with a game plan:

1. Research vegetables and plants that flourish in Zone 5 and took full sun well.
2. Research winter crops so the garden doesn't become dormant when the vegetables aren't growing
3. Send an email to my supervisor at the VA to introduce myself and set up a meeting
4. Have the conference call with the rest of the Summer VISTA associates

I spent the whole morning doing research and discovered some great things about watering (it's best if you do it by hand so that the roots get adequately soaked. This will promote deeper roots which will help prevent droughts getting the better of your garden, composting (you want to keep compost moist and have about half brown waste half green), and complementary planting (in other words planting certain vegetables next to each other so that they work together to promote each other's health *sounds like some cheesy metaphor could be drawn from this). 

My site supervisor ended up calling me to let me know she was very excited to get things started with me but she was going out of town for a convention about therapy gardens and wouldn't be back until Thursday. I'll just have to wait until then to really start sinking my teeth in to the project.

After talking with my supervisor, I sent an email to Casi about another onion sorting party tomorrow night asking her if I could come. She said I was welcome. This one will be with volunteers who I am excited to meet! She also invited me to come cherry gleaning this coming Friday which sounds AWESOME!

During the conference call I had a came up with ideas about what to do while I am working this summer. I'd like to find out if the food bank offers cooking classes on seasonal cooking. With a program that offers fresh, seasonal produce it would be nice to have classes showing people what they can do with these new perhaps foreign (*cough cough* can you say Kohlrabi?) vegetables. Then, I wondered if the Organic Garden at Whitman would want to donate any of the produce from our garden or if there ever ended up being any waste that could be donated. Maybe that would promote people working in the garden? I also remembered that the CCY (Community Center for Youth) might want to help volunteer at these packaging parties like the one being thrown tomorrow. Or, they might even benefit from having their own garden to work in and then donate to BMAC. Lastly, I wondered if we could implement another garden in Assumption Catholic School. That would be a fantastic project for kids to learn about gardening, eating healthily, and giving back to the community. 

At the end of my second day I am looking forward to the rest of the week, especially meeting my supervisor and more community members involved in this effort.