How do we expand the variety, availability, & affordability of local foods produced by sustainable methods? Create a community garden program which empowers individuals to produce and consume good clean food, and to have fun while learning from educational events!
Click here to see the 2010 ESG Solstice garden tour program.
Click here to see the 2010 ESG mid-summer garden tour program.
Earth Source Garden Tours
NE corner N. Scott Blvd and Rochester, IC
Thursday, July 22, 6:00-8:00PM; Tuesday, August 18, 6:00-8:00PM
Thursday, September 23, Equinox, 5:00-7:00PM
Welcome to an innovative community garden project!
In partnership with Harvest Farm & Preserve, New Pioneer has created a prototype community garden called Earth Source Gardens. The Co-op offered individual/household garden plots to 74 members in 2010. The gardeners paid $50, agreed to garden using sustainable methods, to plant annuals, and to share tools, water, compost, and mulch.
The Co-op provided fencing materials, and several truckloads of mulch and compost. Co-op Education and Member Services Coordinator Theresa Carbrey and Co-op member Roxane Mitten conceptualized the educational Co-op garden plots; Theresa oversees the administration of the project as part of her work with the Co-op community.
Julie Decker and Doug and Linda Paul of local non-profit Harvest Farm & Preserve
(www.harvestpreserve.org) agreed to lease two acres of land for the garden for two dollars. The site, near the corner of N. Scott Boulevard and Rochester Avenue, was formerly a cow pasture. Harvest Farm agreed to plow and disk the land, to mow, and to put up fencing. They have also provided water.
Co-op Demonstration Plots 2010
Our second spring at Earth Source Gardens has been alternately hot and rainy. Radishes have come and gone from the Co-op demo beds, but lettuces and peas thrive as of June 21st.
Let’s see what each of the seven Co-op demo beds offer.
Bed #1 introduces the fledgling effort nicknamed the ‘Full Plate Club.’ Growing food for the hungry in our community reminds us that we want everyone to have access to nutritious food. We will share these zucchinis with the Crisis Center & Shelter Home. Bed #1 also contains the ‘Preservation’ garden, featuring tomatoes suitable for canning, cukes and dill for pickling, and basil for making and freezing pesto.
Bed #2 has ‘Sequential’ plantings. The lettuces will fade in the summer heat and be replaced by green beans, showing how a plot of land can be used for different crops over the season. Cilantro bolts to seed quickly, requiring successive plantings to keep this delightful herb available.
Bed #3 invites you to grow ‘Salsa’ ingredients. It features cilantro, onion, tomato, and peppers in various levels of chili heat. Even a melon can be used in salsa, so return July 22 for the next garden tour and sample melon salsa! Edible flowers include pansies, cilantro, nasturtiums, and chives.
Bed #4 shows you can grow colorful vegetables in your garden in accordance with Dr. Terry Wahls’ concepts. Dr. Wahls suggests eating three cups of colorful vegetables each day (beets, carrots, winter squash) , three cups vegetables from the cole family (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, kohl rabi, red and green cabbage, Brussels sprouts), and three cups of onions and garlic.
Along the back of the garden on the trellis we are growing sugar and snap peas, cucumbers and sunflowers. Hidden in the back are purple potatoes and sunflowers.
Beds #5 and #6, the ‘Iowa’ plot, features corn and beans. We are growing soy beans, black beans, Painted Pony beans, Red Stalker decorative corn, sweet corn, strawberry popcorn, and Abbe Hills field corn. Can we make tofu from scratch? Can we grind our field corn to make tortillas? We plan to use an electric fence to keep the raccoons out. Follow our progress on these and other goofy projects at the Smart Alecky Gardener blog at
www.newpi.coop
Bed #7 is a big plot of several kinds of garlic, both hard and soft neck. Our worm composting facility is here as well, employing red wriggler worms to eat our compost and make fertile castings for the gardens.
Pictured above: Roxane Mitten with giant kohl rabi, and Doug Paul of Harvest Farm and Preserve.
Below, Theresa Carbrey, Earth Source Gardens Coordinator, harvesting peas.
For more photos of Earth Source Gardens, check out our Flickr site.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Iowa City Landscaping & Garden Center, Lenoch & Cilek Ace Hardware, Midwest One Bank, Earl May Seed & Nursery
Hills Bank & Trust Company, Paul's Discount of Iowa City, US Bank