City Hall demonstration garden

[LBgarden]

Hi everyone!
My name is April and I will be heading up a demonstration garden at City Hall in Long Beach, California. My hope is that it will serve as an example of how people can grow their own food in an urban setting without access to actual land. We will be purchasing 20 Earthboxes and I will have 5 young adults from the City's Hire A Youth program to help me set it up.

I was wondering if anyone out there has some tips or advice for setting up an Earthbox demo garden. One of the things that people are concerned about is security. We will be obtaining a small fence to enclose the garden but it will still be vulnerable to anyone who can get over the fence at night.

Anyway, any feedback on the project would be greatly appreciated! I am also considering starting some sort of blog that tracks the progress of our little garden in the city!

Thanks,
April

[mandagirl020]

    Allow room in-between the boxes for the plants to grow, because they will!! I didn’t allow enough room for the plants to grow, so when it came time for me to get in-between the Earthboxes I wasnt able to pluck the fruits off without difficultly. Please allow spacious growth and elbow room

    Also, to keep thieves out, I feel bad, for I don’t have any suggestions. Other than a lock on that fence, that’s all you can do???

 

[LBgarden]

Thanks for the tip! I didn't even think about that 

[Kamisha100]

Those EB's are pretty heavy once they are filled up with medium and water. Not saying that it can't be stolen, but it would require some effort and planning to do so.

[LBgarden]

We are going to try wiring them all together, so that way you can't just pick one up and walk off.
We are also going to have signs up explaining what the project is and who is involved. We'll be donating the produce to the local food bank, so I'm optimistic that people will appreciate what is being done and not bother us too much. It's all an experiment too, so we won't know anything until we try it!

[acanfield]

When are you setting them up and what will you be planting?  As an Earthbox enthusiast in Torrance (Driveway Farm 2009), I would love to be an advisor, should you want one. 

Anita

[MacSmiley]

Wow! I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out for you guys!

[LBgarden]

Acanfield,
We will probably get the boxes by the end of the week. I meet with the youth this morning to go over basic gardening knowledge and to explain the project. And yes, I would love to have some advising help from someone who has Earthbox experience! Send me an email and we can talk more about it...

[John]

Hi April,
You can contact me directly if you have any questions. I am in the Educational Sales Dept. at EarthBox.  Do you have contact information for your Cooperative Extension?  How many hours of direct sunlight will the area get?  Do you have a water source near by?
I can provide a powerpoint presentation to help with the initial start-up of your garden. I have also developed layouts to successfully incorporate our Automated Watering System while allowing enough space to harvest and wheelchair accessibility.  We'd love to see before and after pictures.  I applaud your efforts! Tell us more!

[LBgarden]

I'm glad to report that the garden is planted (20 Earthboxes all together) and has survived its first week on the City Hall blacktop! I'm a little nervous about the weather getting too hot (I planted mostly fall veggies), but I can always get different plants if some of these don't work out.

[boxed-in]

   Looks great!  I wish you the best.  It will be a great learning experience for everyone involved. 

I couldn't tell from the photo if all of your EBs have casters on them, or just the one with the trellis. 

To prevent tweaked backs amongst the gardeners, you may find it best to have wider "aisles" between the boxes, so that people don't have to twist their backs around in awkward positions to tend to the plants, such as when tying plants to stakes, which can be difficult, especially as the plants grow and their leaves get in the way.  The "fumble fingers"  factor can get pretty frustrating when you're halfway bent over a plant and twisting about to position your feet without stepping on foliage that has grown out of the box and onto the ground (as plants such as squash will do). 

But this may not be as much of a problem with winter crops, that don't tend to get as carried away with themselves as summer crops do.   And younger bodies tend to be more flexible, stronger, and able to "bounce back" easier than middle-aged bodies.  But body dynamics could be part of the education the kids get from the gardening project.  Learning to respect life and finding ways for plants AND people to grow healthy and strong. 

Wow, there are so many educational possibilities here.  You could have creative classes or outings for local grade-school kids, where they get to visit the garden and  draw pictures of the plants (and bugs!), or make sidewalk art with chalk around the boxes, or make up stories and songs and dances about them, etc.   Have fun!  I bet more people will come out of the woodwork to help expand the project, once they see it all coming together.   It would be so cool if this demonstration garden resulted in more public schools starting up their own garden projects! 

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one!"   

[LBgarden]

Thanks for the tips and kudos, boxed-in!
I love the idea of chalk art around the garden, especially since we are in SoCal and it NEVER rains. We will hopefully be having a little ribbon-cutting for the garden, and we will definitely be  integrating some educational aspects into that.
I will keep you posted :-)
April

[LBgarden]

Hey everyone!
We have a little website up for the garden:
http://www.longbeach.gov/citymanager/sustainability/edible_garden_project/default.asp
Check it out and let me know what you think!
We harvested most of the lettuce and tatsoi, and our broccoli and cabbage are just about ready for eating. We've been picking peas for the past 2 weeks, and even our tomato plant (which I was skeptical about planting so late) has 7 fruit on it!

[Donald1800]

Yes, I too highly recommend more row space -  at least 2', and preferably 3' between EarthBox rows.  Most plants will expand out into the row area and will hamper people movement within the row.

Donald1800

[molly]

Hello April.

Welcome.  Your project is awesome.  Congratulations.  You cannot imagine how thrilled I am to hear of your project.  Before I became Education Director at EarthBox, I ran an inner city EarthBox Garden that was very successful and supported by the city and school district.  We eventually opened a Farmer's Market!  I will be glad to work with you to develop an awesome EarthBox Demonstration Garden at your site.  I can also put you in touch with folks who currently operate such gardens.  Check out Brick City Urban Farms on the EarthBox FaceBook (www.facebook.com/EarthBox) page to see all the good things that can happen!   Interestingly enough, no one has had an issue with people stealing or damaging the boxes in the city farms.  Apparently, the folks in the neighborhoods will protect and support a good thing that is happening in their communit.   There are all kinds of design layouts available for the projects and consideration of a water source and where the sun is in the sky season by season.  Our Youth Garden Guide is very helpful when designing the garden. I hope that you will post in the community/education section of the Forum in the future.   We intended that section to focus on schools and community gardens.