Has your green thumb wilted? Do you want to try reviving it? Would you like to help a new organization help a new cause?
With a small core group of about eight students, the Hill Farm Community Garden meets to plant vegetables. The group also weeds and waters the garden.
Carl Motsenbocker, faculty adviser for the garden, said most of the vegetables grown go to the Battered Women’s shelter. He said the women there love receiving the fresh, organically-grown vegetables.
Jason Avant, a horticulture senior and garden coordinator, said there are about 15 more members who come to help out when they have time.
He said anyone is welcome to come help out in the garden. Avant said to participate, all students need to do is show up at the Hill Farm on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. and “be ready to get their hands dirty.”
Weeding and planting are some things newcomers might do. Currently the gardeners are planting rows of carrots and lettuce and caring for other rows of mustard greens.
“People have told me weeding is very therapeutic,” Avant said.
Motsenbocker said he has had a lot to smile about this semester. He said 31 students enrolled in his horticulture class, and the students’ gardens have been quite
successful, despite the rain last weekend and the hurricanes. Also, the community garden has begun to flower with winter vegetables such as mustard greens and lettuce.
Dienielle DuPlantis, a psychology senior, began working in the garden during the spring 2002 semester. She says she started because she likes to garden and the produce is for a good cause.
Michael Thyre, a horticulture senior, said the Community Garden is an organic garden. The gardeners use no inorganic pesticides or fertilizers. Instead, he said they carefully weed, make sure no pests are present and use natural pesticides. Motsenbocker said the gardeners often use rinds of the Satsuma oranges grown in the adjacent fruit orchard to fend off fire ants.
“And, it gives students an excuse to pick the oranges,” Motsenbocker said.
Thyre said a fish emulsion is used for fertilizer.
“It’s kind of like chum,” he said with a wrinkled nose.
Avant said the garden has been up and running for a year.
The garden plants two times a year, once in late August and again in the spring.
He said the fall crop yields a better harvest because barring hurricanes, the weather is more stable.
Motsenbocker said despite two hurricanes and a large amount of rain, the Community Garden is doing well.
The gardeners get the seeds for the garden from private donations and often the overspill of seeds from horticulture classes.