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Community Garden @ Work

TXCG

TXCG

I'm a member of the Green Team at work which is basically just a grassroots initiative trying to help reduce the environmental impact of our company. One of the side projects that me and another member had been trying to get going was building a community garden for employees.

The biggest hurdle we were looking at was water availability. There were only 2 spots on the whole campus to connect a hose that we were aware of. This Tuesday we were out scouting spots when we ran into a maintenance guy who pointed us in the direction of a 3rd "unofficial" water spout which happened to be right next to the site we had earmarked as perfect if it had water.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Long story short this thing is going to happen. We got the approval of the facilities manager and the maintenance crew is going to get involved. They are going to foot the bill for the deer fence as well as any sort of irrigation. The members are going to foot the bill for the cinderblocks, soil, plants & tools.

The plan is to start small, with a 10'x10' or so raised bed. Maybe a bit larger. We only have 10 members interested in this right now so we don't want to take on too much at once. We have to remove some johnson grass before we can start construction, and I believe the plan is to wait until it cools off a bit and we get some rain to soften the soil up. As soon as there is anything to report i'll update this.

I'll also take a picture of the site next time I get a chance


I'm excited!:onfire::onfire::onfire:
 
lostmind said:
Sounds pretty cool.
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It's very cool. It will be a place where apartment dwellers like myself will have a chance to grow gigantic pepper trees out in a real garden. I've wanted a garden for so long, but I've been confined to pots and hydroponics and a balcony that gets half-assed light.
 
Sounds like a great plan. I wish the office i'm at had any type of land at all, but it's just the opposite. At my condo complex we have TONS of land that no one wants to upkeep so I have the entire raised beds to my self. The only problem is it's a lot of work for 1 guy.
 
Excellent. Community Gardens are awesome. My friend Emily lives in Philly and shes part of a community garden that has some of the best collard and mustard greens i've ever had.
 
Here is the future site:

3746811035_27822ee7ee_b.jpg
 
I'd go with a couple of 4 x 12 beds instead of a 10 x 10, so you can reach all parts of the bed from the edge and not walk on and compact your soil.
 
Silver_Surfer said:
I'd go with a couple of 4 x 12 beds instead of a 10 x 10, so you can reach all parts of the bed from the edge and not walk on and compact your soil.
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I agree.
 
Good idea about the multiple beds. We were already going to have to start larger since we're up to about 30 members :)
 
Loooooooooong and X4 ft or so is the way to go. That is how my raised beds are.

Plants grow over the sides, so you actually have more usable space in 3 3X10 beds than in 1 10X10 bed, despite less actual square footage.
 
I recall a large garden my dad had when I was a kid in the south- the farmers down there laughed at him- but we had a really big, flat grassy yard. he measured the front of the lawnmower and had the man with the mule plow our vegetable rows just far enough apart so that he could mow between the rows- He could garden without getting his boots muddy- it made it easier or us kids to help at harvest time and we didnt have any trouble with weeds. the corn and the beans and the cucumbers didnt care!
 
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