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Berry's Organic Garden, B.O.G.

Rain Rain Go Away...Come Again Some Other Day

Even though this past Saturday's volunteer day was rained out, we are all smiles at the B.O.G.!! A new date for everyone to meet and volunteer is in the making. So be on the lookout for a new date and sunny skies. Thanks to everyone who planned on coming out and we hope to see you next time!!

Manure Transfer

Tomorrow morning we will be transferring cow manure from the dairy to the BOG in preparation for tilling in some natural amenities to the soil. Anyone who would like to help can meet at 8AM in front of Wescott. We will probably work for about an hour or so. Come have some morning fun and get yucky with us. ;)

BOG Presentation

A presentation will be given on the BOG this Friday, April 24 at 2PM in room 115 of the science building. A meet and greet session with tasty refreshments and snacks will follow. All are welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing all of your smiling faces.

before & after shots

BEFORE

AFTER

Angie Lottes, Cade Strippelhoff, Ami Shank, Samantha Kellenberger

We've Broke Ground

Congratulations BOG! You have been tilled!! Today, with loving help from volunteers, the BOG was turned over for the very first time. Everyone got their hands dirty and got right down into the dirt. We even ran barefoot right through the middle of it!! ;o) We picked out rocks and any other invaders. The dirt look beautiful. We even came across some lovely little worms!! Yay for BOG progress!!!

Want a tour and personal introduction to the BOG and the horticultural facilities?

Then come to the BOG this evening at 5PM and bring your friends!! Andrea Jones will be there to show everyone around the facility and familiarize us with where the tools, equipment, etc. are kept, PLUS you'll get to see the BOG firsthand!! Come on out to the BOG and we'll meet you there!!

Daughters of Berry and Board of Visitors

We will be presenting the BOG to more of the Berry community this week!! Thursday we will visit with the Daughters of Berry followed by the Board of Visitors this Saturday morning!! How exciting!? We look forward to a great time with both of these groups and can't wait to hear and answer questions about the BOG them....we'll be keeping everyone posted as the BOG continues to move forward! ;)

This Weeks Events

Rain Rain Go Away! Come Again Some Other Day! We have been hopeful that this week could be dedicated to getting our hands dirty at the BOG but the rain has been relentless!! When there's a break in the clouds....we're heading to the BOG to complete a little bit of prep work. Cleaning out, possibly even tilling and adding some nutrients to the soil. Stay tuned.. ; )

lungs for the soul

More than just a few people have learned life lessons from their garden! What could you learn?

http://www.quotegarden.com/gardens.html

Tilling and Fencing

Whoo hoo!!!.... We've made some headway on tilling and fencing the garden plot. Early next week I'll be expecting a call from the Physical Plant. We can meet with one of the grounds people out at the plot and discuss possible fencing/tilling options. Yay!!!

Oh man! April 2nd is going to be quite amazing! The information session shouls go over really swell and provide a ton of great info for everyone!
I'm excited
more sights and references!!! woohoo!
these refer to insect and weed avoidance!!!
www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-08-01/Best-Organic-Ways-to-Eliminate-Weeds.aspx

www.diynetwork.com/diy/gr_diseases_weeds/article/0,2029,DIY_13843_5644425,00.html
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/farmman2/organic/insects.pdf http://www.allaboutstuff.com/garden_tips/Eliminating_Pests_and_Insects.asp
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/organic/2006/beneficial.html
http://www.howtogardenadvice.com/challenges/organic_insect_control.html

It's a late night and someone is working on some sweet ideas for organic gardening. :)

Free thinking

Okay so we need to start thinking about some sweet quantitative data sets that we can throw at these people. Who are we inviting to this shindig? I think we should have PCC people come to it and get them active and excited about the prospects. Gotta watch out for some of the more anti-environmental folk. They are over in another part of the campus that I'll refrain from mentioning on this blog. So we can calculate just how much carbon we are prevening from releasing when we don't let it out into the air. I'm not sure how to do this. If we think of the inputs of C02 for regular food down in d-hall perhaps we should justtake a specific set of ingredients from which to set our standard. If we have some spinach from Florida, I wonder if we can calculate just how much carbon went into it's production in the form of pesticides, water, fertilizer, and transport. What we'd find out is a dramatically lower number I presume. I think we could even use some form of that EPA thingy on carbon footprint calculators to determine just how much we save. I don't really know but I gotta think about it. that is all for now.
holy smokes. sounds like a lot of work

the rainbow-- for inspiration

My heart leaps up when I behold  
A rainbow in the sky:  
So was it when my life began;  
So is it now I am a man;  
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!  
The Child is father of the Man;  
I could wish my days to be  
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth
'The Rainbow'

Possible issues

Cade is goin to take care of weeds problem and deer fencing. plus he's going to get in touch with the physical plant.

REFERENCES

Hey all! To start up our first post, we need to establish a running reference list and links. So here it goes.

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1011-w.html#Table7

http://www.gardenersnet.com/organicgardening/organicsoil.htm

Taylor, Michèle E., and Michael D. Morecroft. 2009. "Effects of agri-environment schemes in a long-term ecological time series." Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 130, no. 1/2: 9-15. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2009).
Pleasant, Barbara. 2008. "Gardening for Keeps." Mother Earth News , no. 230: 94-100. Environment Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2009).

Rozman, Črtomir, Andrej Škraba, Miroljub Kljajić, Karmen Pažek, Martina Bavec, and Franci Bavec. 2008. "The System Dynamics Model for Development of Organic Agriculture." AIP Conference Proceedings 1051, no. 1: 380-389. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2009).

Birkhofer, Klaus, Bezemer, T. Martijn, Bloem, Jaap, Bonkowski, Michael, Christensen, Søren, Dubois, David, Ekelund, Fleming, et al. 2008. "Long-term organic farming fosters below and aboveground biota: Implications for soil quality, biological control and productivity." Soil Biology & Biochemistry 40, no. 9: 2297-2308. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2009).

Adelman, Deborah, and Shamili Sandiford. 2007. "Reflections from the Garden." Radical Teacher , no. 78: 5-10. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 20, 2009).
2008. "EAT, GROW, BE HAPPY." Ecologist 38, no. 4: 8-8. Environment Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2009).

Pleasant, Barbara. 2008. "The No-spray Way to Protect Plants." Mother Earth News , no. 226: 26-30. Environment Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2009).

Leshinsky, Jay. Middlebury College Organic Garden. Emails.

McInnis, Erynn. ‘Organic Gardens and Possibilities for Implementation at Smith College.’ Environmental Science and Policy. Smith College. May 2005.