Kinky Hose Party!

Breaking New Ground

We broke new ground last week at Parson's Garden, and used the new space to plant some wheat saved from last year's harvest! The process of preparing the ground to be planted included clearing the area, spreading compost, and then using the broadfork to promote healthy soil conditions.

Removing the grassy layer -- note all of the worms!

A healthy-sized worm!

Lucy was hard at work -- and she also matched the fall foliage :)

Spreading compost to be mixed into the new bed.

We used broadforks in order to promote healthy ventilation and to keep the soil from being too tightly packed. Broadforks are a great alternative to tillers, which can lead to erosion and soil of decreased fertility.

Last Week's Garden Dinner

Last week we had a lovely dinner cooked by the staff at Driscoll, who used our very own produce along with other local ingredients!

 Amber and Sonja!

 Sarah enjoying the beautiful buffet.

 Yummmm.

 The entire group digging in! Also, notice that the Driscoll staff decorated with pumpkins and candles -- it was nice touch.

 Sonja :)

 Andrea and Talia posing with dinner.

 It was so good!

Work Party Photos

Here are some long overdue photos of our work party from two weeks ago! I did my best to caption them, but please let me know if anything is incorrect or incomplete -- I'm still a newbie :)

 Harvesting for Driscoll and Mission.

 Jacob and Lauren discussing the order of business.

 We also covered the raised beds to protect them from any potential frost.

Piper and Samantha sporting purple pride mustaches at the presidential garden!

Reaching New Heights

Lauren climbs a tree to reach apples

I couldn’t help imagining myself as a picture in a Williams brochure. “Just another day at Williams,” the caption would read, below a picture of me wearing hard hat and wheeling a load of apples down the sidewalk. 

This particular Friday, Lauren and I found ourselves entering the Steton-Sawyer construction site to harvest apples. I thought of the verb to decimate, literally, to reduce to one-tenth. Though Kellogg garden is no more, a few apple trees remain. Lauren had retrieved keys to the site, hard hats from the Geoscience department, and long fruit pickers from the Environmental Science department. 

The construction site

We gleefully gleaned apples from the ground and tree branches. After an hour, we had filled five 5-gallon buckets!

The next morning, we reconvened with more help and spent the day chopping and stirring. We turned half of the apples into applesauce. 

some of our harvest!

We were able to share some of the applesauce with the rest of the group at the delicious and fun garden dinner prepared by Driscoll Dining Hall on Tuesday. It was wonderful to come together with old and new garden friends and celebrate the fall with, well, the fruits of our labor.