Oct 4, 2018 

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Santiago Food Project Garden Report

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This quarter was the end of the summer season so we did a lot of work harvesting crops. We harvested the amaranth and the tree sisters and different crops and made the cultural and spiritual link with the Latino community. We held workshops with the community and conducted the Green Environmental Leadership program, and made celebration for all the community to  celebrate the summer equinox end the fall solstice. We prepared the beds for winter and are planting cover crops to get nitrogen into the soil and help the living biology of the soil, that we call the soil peoples. We sprayed compost tea to work with the soil fertility twice a month to help with healthy soil and our water conservation  goal. We recently harvested the first time amaranth seeds from Santiago Garden possibly the first time in the area, now we have Santiago garden amaranth seeds to share. We hosted a harvest workshop from our relatives from Guatemala. We’re planning a celebration for the winter Solstice on December 20. We are organizing and planning a training in spring 2019 that is multiple weeks and teaches about urban agriculture and traditional knowledge. The congregation and others are invited to participate.

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Plant List:

Amaranth

Tomatoes

Peppers

Strawberries

Lettuce

Lemon cucumber

tomatillo

Zucchini

Squash

Radish

Beans

Sweet peas

Marigold and flowers

Medicinal Herbs

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Garden Activities

 

• Created new beds; Estimated and ordered soil; Shovelled soil; arranged for volunteer help

• Created green waste stations for compost materials

• Planted Summer crops; selected crops from local nurseries; added amendment; planted

• Added new irrigation; selected parts from irrigation store; installed and tested irrigation

• Wood chips in the garden area

• General Maintenance including:

  • Weeding

  • Daily watering

  • Check drip irrigation

  • Maintain and clean the garden 

  • Distribute wood chips

  • Fertilize soil with amendment

  • Remove and compost old plant material

  • Preparing beds and soil

  • Composting yard material on site.

  • Workdays to clean garden

                        

Outreach and Education

 

• Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox celebrations. Arranging for garden blessing with native drum and music, Aztec dancers. Arranging food, educational materials. Performing outreach to neighborhood, distributing flyers to homes and talking with people about our urban agriculture project.

• Green Environmental training – conducted training for 10 bilingual students to learn urban agriculture with the garden site as well as classroom and field trips. Organized training program in June - September; create curriculum; schedule training

 

Donations and Administration

 

• Meetings with Episcopal Impact staff and St James staff

• Updated website to include events, and garden resources

• Took photos and distributed

  

We’ve included a link to photos of the garden and activities this quarter, here: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R43nW1n_iSdQFgMpMlDVsB9T7txg5eNS