This project is in association with the Booker T Washington Community Center (BTWCC) and the University of San Francisco's Environmental Studies Capstone course. This course has historically been designed as a service-learning course which involves Environmental Studies students in a local project and putting their course knowledge to practice. This Spring 2010 semester will be the inaugural group for what will be a long-term rehabilitation project of BTWCC's garden, and the transformation of it into a community garden on the border of the Western Addition neighborhood and Laurel Heights neighborhood.
This garden was abandoned years ago by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners but we have discovered that it is still a very important asset to San Francisco and we hope to significantly restore it. The garden has the potential to provide community growth through gardening projects, and will work with the hope in creating a healthier San Francisco by providing fresh produce for the weekly community food distribution. The garden will also incorporate gardening and nutrition education to children, as BTWCC provides after school and summer program services.
In the next coming weeks the class will focus on:
-implementing our permaculture design which includes several beds for vegetables, fruits and trees
-bringing in a chicken coop with 3 or 4 chickens and potentially creating a program in which members of the community care for the chickens in exchange for eggs; also installing a worm bin
-having a community work day on Saturday, April 10 with music and BBQ
-restoring and building new structures in the garden (outdoor kitchen, education gazebo, bringing in a solar oven)
-bringing in a compost bin and compost tumbler
-educating children in the after school program on composting, working with animals, and fundamentally where their food comes from; also having them work with weeding and planting in the garden
-creating a rain catchment system utilizing gutter water and other outlets of water in the garden
-testing the soil of various plots to ensure full potential for the particular vegetables, fruits and trees we would like to plant
Fundamental design for BTWCC garden:
Plot A- keyhole shaped which includes borrage and strawberries
Plot B- spinach, cabbage, chard, celery, onion, beets, chamomile
Plot C- collard greens, carrots, kale, radish, parsnips
Plot D- a fruit tree and bean teepee
Plot E- still to be decided
Plot F- fruit trees, potato towers
Plot G- lavender, artichoke, grapes, blueberries
Some pictures thus far of the class members at the garden (courtesy of the Environmental Studies Capstone Wiki page):
Doug Murray with a tree root
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