Green Corps and Goodbyes

On Thursday, the interns were able to receive a tour of the five urban farms operated by Green Corps.  Green Corps is an organization which provides high school students with the opportunity to build healthier, greener communities.  These students are able to learn job skills while also earning high school credit.  Each of the farms are located in "food deserts," or areas that may not readily have access to locally grown and produced foods.  Students grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers which are sold at their markets weekly.  The farms are all planted on transformed vacant lots.  They use what are called lasagna beds (a term that I have never heard before), that are planted in layers of composted material, manure, black dirt, etc.  Learning about this method of urban farming, I was immediately taken back to SOIL 3416 and our discussion on the build and maintain soils, John Lamb would be proud! 

Buckeye Urban Farm

On Site Farm Stand

At each location, one of the students gave us a tour of their farm site and we got to snack on lots of the products, too.  I was impressed with how knowledgeable each student was on the farm and what they were producing.  Not only are the students responsible for staying informed, but they are also in charge of management tasks such as weeding, pruning, watering. etc.  They work approximately 16-20 hours per week. 

At the first site, Buckeye, the students also had tires planted outside of the fence.  The tires were meant for the community to come and take from, one of them even had an artichoke plant, it was unique!  At the next site, Fairfax, we got to try some of the produce including watercress and wild strawberries which were described as tasting like an artificially flavored Popsicle.  Lonnie Burten, the third site was one of the best because you could really see how passionate the students were about their farms, they were really excited to show us everything they were producing.  At each site, students are also allowed to have their own raised beds where they can plant whatever they want.  Slavic Village was also very impressive for how small the site was, and they had the most amazing blueberries that I have ever tasted!  Finally, we stopped at the Yellow House.  This is the original Green Corps site which is 16 years old and was previously used to help former felons adjust to life and working outside of jail. 

Herb Spirals

After our great tour of the Green Corps farms, we had a laid back afternoon celebrating the final days of Andy working at the Gardens.  Andy, Grounds Manager, is my now former supervisor who hired me in April.  It's sad to see him go so soon, since I have had little time to actually get to know him.  He was extremely helpful in getting me to where I am today, well that is living in an apartment and working for the gardens in Cleveland!   I appreciate everything that he has done, and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.  His going away party took place in the Kitchen Garden where we got to enjoy some delicious, fresh grilled pizza.

The Kitchen Garden

 The rest of the week flew by and on to the weekend!  I continued to cross off things to do on my Cleveland bucket list, more stories to follow.  For now, I will leave you with a beautiful image that I took during Friday morning chores. 

Blue Hydrangea in the Shade Garden