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!
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