Ithaca College Community Garden Experimentation Report
Summer/Fall 2010
Emma Hileman
IC Community Integration
1. Working with classes
a. This year we worked with students from Karryn Olson-Ramanujan’s Sustainable Water Management
Course taught through the Environmental Studies Department. We worked with three students on
their project concerning the garden and the inescapable wet area. A proposal was submitted by the
three students to have a small workshop on Swales (small man-made trenches or low lying areas
that help collect rainwater runoff and other running water, such as groundwater) during late fall.
They did the research on how to create swales and in what manner so as to divert the groundwater
that seeps into the area and just sits. They also got seed from the Grounds department for the
swales. We had a very small workshop and demonstration with the three students in November.
Four small trenches were created at the far right of the garden entrance from campus. As is the case
with experimenting, sometimes it does fail. In this case, we believe the students had the right idea
going into the project but the implementation of the swales did not turn out as well as hoped.
Instead, the small trenching may have made a small portion of the area even wetter by simply
diverting the groundwater into a smaller area – and an area of high use. Karryn, their professor, has
suggested that improvements be made as soon as the ground is not frozen in the spring time to
readdress the issue of runoff in this area. We hope that we can continue to work with students from
classes like these in the future and work together to find better solutions to the problems we face.
Although the swales did not remedy the area, they were themselves an experiment, and proved to
be able to divert water as they should.
b. This year the garden was incorporated into three food-related classes taught by Julia Lapp, Michael
Smith and Paula Turkon. Students in these classes were required to do community service of some
sort that was related to food. We had a few students attend a garden workday or workshop and ask
us questions as part of their assignment. This was a great way (thanks to the professors) of getting
some new faces down to the garden and exposing our organization and practices to new students.
This was a simple and easy way to get more students involved and we would like for many more
classes in the future to have this requirement for students, especially first or second year students.
2. Course proposal
a. This semester a course proposal for a Block I course on the garden was compiled and written by a
club member. The club spent a whole hour discussing the idea of a Block I course and what we
would like to see integrated into such a course including texts, assignments, fieldtrips, projects, etc.
Madison Vander Hill, the author of the proposal, worked hard to design a course that included all
the principles the club felt was important for a course based solely on the garden and local
horticulture. This will be a great way to strengthen our ties with the Environmental Studies
department as well as with courses taught at Ithaca College in general.
3. Harvest Events
a. This past semester we had our first harvest festival – an experimental festival that we hope to
continue in the future. During the festival we painted small personalized flags that will be flown in
the future on the top of the fence, ate local cheese and other homemade goodies, sang a few songs,
planted our spring crop of garlic, and enjoyed a rainy fall day outside to help celebrate the first
successful year for the IC Community Garden. This event was held for all club members and
volunteers that have helped us in the past year or two with construction and worked with us during
workshops and workdays. I am sure this will continue into future years.
b. It became an experiment early on as to what to do with all the produce. The best answer was to
have harvest dinners for members of the organization and volunteers. The harvest dinners (about
once a month) became a great way for those in the organization to interact with the delicious food
they had helped grow in the last few months. At some we all helped make dinner, at others only a
few officers made dinner while all others just came to eat. We had meals that consisted of dishes
such as squash fritters, homegrown salad, squash, bean and cheese quesadillas, homemade pickles,
butternut squash soup, French fries, roasted potatoes, pesto pasta, tomato and mozzarella salad,
green beans, coleslaw, zucchini muffins and even a vegan chocolate beet cake. All the produce was
grown in the garden, while the other ingredients such as pasta and flour were bought using money
from the SGA. In conclusion, these were the highlight of the semester and proved to be an excellent
way to use the produce we grew while having fun and creating new dishes out of fresh or preserved
local produce that we had known since they were just seeds.
4. Preservation
a. This semester we dabbled in the art of preservation as a way to help save some of our produce for
future use at harvest dinners. One form of preservation we tried included freezing. We froze two big
bags of shredded squash and zucchini which were turned into cakes and muffins, and we froze two
big bags of tomatoes which became broth for a vegetable/bean soup. At the end of the season we
harvested all of the basil and were able to freeze three small bags of homemade pesto along with
other club members. We also were able to dry beans, herbs, and hot peppers that were used
throughout all of the dinners – and we still have some for next season. The last form of preservation
we used was the art of canning. We canned many jars of homemade cucumber and green tomato
pickles that were a delicious treat at the harvest dinners.
5. Workshops
a. This year we decided to experiment with student led workshops on topics such as cover crops, crop
rotation, compost, season extension, and winterizing your garden. Our most successful workshop
was on cover cropping and crop rotation which was a discussion led by a few students on the ideas
behind the methods, how to implement them and why. The other workshops were not as organized
but still yielded in discussions and enabled those that were present to learn something new about
these issues in horticulture. These workshops were a great way to educate others and should
continue in the future of the garden.
6. Visibility
a. Getting our website up and running nearer to the end of the semester is a good step toward making
the garden even more visible to the campus community. On this we can highlight the aspects of the
garden that are most appealing to those interested, including faculty, staff and students at IC, as
well as other community members.
b. This semester one of our club officers, Hayden, hand carved a wonderful sign for the trail leading to
the garden from campus. Once this sign is put up and in place it will be great for making the garden
more accessible to those on campus. When Hayden asked if he could make a sign, we were a little
skeptical at first of his abilities to carve wood, but it turned out even better than we had imagined.
Relying on others is always an experiment in and of itself – but this was a pleasant surprise!
c. The Organic Growers of Ithaca College also advertised our workshops, workdays and harvest dinners
using whatever means we had during the semester. We also hosted an event late in the semester
which included a screening of the film “The Real Dirt on Farmer John”, a story about an eccentric
organic farmer out west who takes over after his dad dies and creates a large CSA program in a few
years. Screening films related to agriculture, organic produce and community is a great way to get
new people interested in the garden.
Community partnerships
1. Workshop with CCE
a. This semester we attempted to have a workshop hosted by our organization at our garden that
was advertised through Cornell Cooperative Extension. We were scheduled to meet community
members at our garden, talk about how we started the garden and what challenges we faced as
well as how we received funding. We were also planning to plant garden at this workshop as a
simple and fun activity. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication and one member of CCE being
absent for that week it was never advertised to the community and had to be cancelled.
However, though we were disappointed it was cancelled, we will have a workshop in the future
through the CCE Master Gardener program.
2. Ithaca Children’s Garden Workday
a. Through our connection with the ICG (Ithaca Children’s Garden) – Taryn Hubbard, a past OGIC
member – we were able to take a workday to volunteer at their garden downtown. Part of the
goal of the OGIC is to make community connections with other food producers in the area –
including the Children’s garden. We would like to volunteer our time when we can to other
farms and gardens in the area. Part of our goal is to advertise other volunteering opportunities
in the community to our organization members.
3. Local Donations
a. During the peak of the harvest season when we had a plethora of squash, we decided to give
some away to a local food bank downtown. We chose to donate two boxes of vegetables to the
local soup kitchen (more or less a community wide meal) called Loaves and Fishes. It was very
easy to donate our food and we went there for dinner the next day and were pretty sure we
were eating our own squash! There are many other places that will take donated produce
throughout the season and these can be looked into further in the future.
Season Extension
1. Hoop Houses
a. This season we experimented with season extension by constructing a few hoop houses over
already existing lettuce, spinach and carrots. We started by drilling clips that piping could slide
in and out of easily. We spaced each pipe two feet apart – for a total of six pieces of piping for
each bed. We used an 8 foot pipe in each slot so that there was enough space for the produce
to grow adequately, but also not be too high up for the sake of supporting the weight of snow,
ice and other materials. Two types of piping were used – one was much thicker and beige which
was sturdy enough and lasted through the first snow. The other was clearer, thinner and lighter
but did not last underneath the first snow of the season and caused the entire hoop house to
collapse. We also used 5mm plastic sheeting on top of the one hoop house that had lettuce and
spinach. This seemed to be a fine weight and worked very well until the snow and ice came. This
material seemed to work well with the thicker piping (which we bought from Agway in 10 ft.
pipes) but did not work well with the lighter piping which collapsed under the snow. We also
used two different types of clips for the piping – copper and plastic to compare which will be
the most durable and last the longest in the garden. In the future it would be nice to have at
least three functional hoop houses throughout the fall and winter and for early spring planting.
Most of the materials we used are being stored for next season and can be tried again – this
time with only using the thicker piping with the 5mm plastic sheeting. One more suggestion
would be to clamp the plastic sheeting to the pipes – this season the plastic sheeting was weight
down on the sides of the bed on the ground, but was not clamped to every pipe which might
have helped the hoop house to avoid collapsing under snow and other materials.
Soil
1. Cover Crops
a. This semester we were able to get a cover crop seed mix with Alfalfa, rye and clover in the mix.
We put this cover crop seed on approximately a third of our beds – those that did not have any
overwintering crops, did not have hoop houses, and had crops that ended early in fall. We used
different methods to spread this seed including randomly throwing it and then covering it with
soil, digging small trenches and then covering with soil, spreading without covering with soil,
rows, circles and edges. We do not anticipate there being much of a difference in terms of
germination depending on the method used – but it was still a part of our experimentation and
curiosity. There are also many types of cover crops, so we can determine if a mix is better than
selecting an individual cover crop for each bed.
2. Compost
a. We had to alter our compost piles a bit this semester because they were starting to overflow.
We had several club members go to a CCE workshop on winterizing your compost and came
back with ideas to try. We created a compost bin out of chicken wire and stakes and layered our
compost with leaves. We also consolidated our two other compost piles and added leaves to
them as well. Compost seems to be a great way to experiment with soil and decomposition and
should continue to be explored in the future.