Our apologies for not blogging this past month; we’ve been so busy at the garden that we’ve barely been indoors! Since we last wrote, our garden has really taken off. We spent most of May and early June digging, irrigating and planting the beds. We planted the full gamut of market vegetables—squash, beans, peas, tomatoes, leeks, lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beets, carrots, potatoes, corn, peppers, eggplant, kale, chard, radishes, onions, turnips, and herbs. How beautiful it has been to watch the land grow greener!

 

For the most part, our plants seem to be doing well. Colorado had a cold, dry spring this season, but warmer temperatures and more frequent rain in the past few weeks have spurred much growth. Our biggest setbacks thus far have been a hailstorm that came through recently and some mishaps in the design of our irrigation. Despite these minor problems, we have already harvested some greens, radishes, broccoli, beets, and peas.

 

Approximately two weeks ago we went to our first farmer’s market. We will be selling our produce at a small stand there all summer, as a means of engaging with community members and local farmers, learning about the alternative food movement, and raising a bit more money for future projects. Thus far, our customers seem very receptive to the idea of a “student garden”, which is great!

 

Last week, two groups of preschool students visited the garden to help us plant and paint decorative rocks. They really seemed to enjoy the garden and were very helpful!

 

We at the CC Student garden hope that you are all enjoying the summer and finding time to spend in either your own or community gardens!

 

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The Colorado College Farm has been extremely busy this past month. We finalized our layout plan and have been preparing the beds for planting. This consists of digging up large chunks of sod and finding many treasures hidden beneath the soil, such as: pencil sharpeners, pieces of old tile, and a meat thermometer. We have also been moving massive amounts of compost onto our newly formed beds. At this point, we have established 12 rows on the lower portion of our plot, as well as four wedges on the upper part which contain keyhole beds and a few rows.

We have also finished constructing one of the hoop houses and are now ready to give our seedlings a more permanent home! Having done some more planting, we can now add potatoes, leeks and broccoli to our list of growing crops. Campus facilities installed an impressive deer fence at the entrance of our plot. We contributed to the aesthetic qualities of the new fence by adding on a lattice that some students made from the branches of the trees we cleared from the plot. We celebrated earth day by having a campus wide workday down at our plot. Students came down to the plot to dig up sod, paint stones to label the crops, and to enjoy one other’s company in the sun. We invited local elementary school students down to the plot to learn about basic farming practices and play around in the dirt.

We discovered that we are sharing our plot with a family of deer as well as family of foxes. We have learned how to co-exist with the foxes, but the deer are a different issue. There have been a variety of ideas proposed about how to best deal with the deer, but if anyone has suggestions we would love to hear them…

 

Enjoy the days of May and try to find time to play in the dirt!

 

Love,

The Colorado College Farm Club

 

Three years ago, a small group of college students started this group in order to learn more about sustainable agriculture and organic farming practices. In our first years, we participated in projects with a local farm. Since that time, this small group of students has grown into an established club with more than thirty members. Last spring, we began the process of obtaining our own garden plot on the Colorado College campus. With widespread support from the college's administration, faculty, and students, we have established a 1.3-acre garden located just a few blocks from campus. Thus far we've had a busy school year. In the fall, the Farm Club held weekly planning meetings, during which we fundraised, elected leaders to guide the project, and designed the garden layout. Club members researched many crops in order to determine which varieties are best suited for Colorado's cold winters and arid summers, choosing heirloom varieties whenever possible. This spring, students have spent many Saturdays at the garden plot preparing for the growing season. We have built two hoop houses, removed sod from the plot, started a small beehive and added compost to the soil. We recently started several tomato, squash, kale, chard, broccoli and onion varieties, and are anxiously awaiting the last frost of the spring so that we can transfer the plants to the garden. The Colorado College Farm Club is very excited about the first growing season at the new garden! We view it as an opportunity to experiment and innovate. By trying various permaculture and sustainable agriculture techniques, we hope to learn what practices will create an ecologically healthy and productive garden. We believe that with years of careful stewardship, our garden has the potential to create greater sense of place and build community surrounding local organic agriculture. 

 

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