Spring garden work day

Check out this great journal entry from Stefani Taylor who helped us get the UWF garden ready for spring: 

UWF Community Garden Service Learning Journal

            During my service learning with the UWF garden club, we worked in the UWF community garden getting the beds ready for spring harvest. In order for these beds to be ready for spring harvest, the students participating in the service learning had to pull up the weeds from the beds, add fertilizer and manure, and then turn the soil over will shovels and forks to make sure all of the soil was loose and ready for new plants to sprout they’re roots for spring.

            The work I did throughout the UWF community garden began with me pulling from an abundantly weed filled bed. Little did I know that I would not only be pulling weeds, but carrots as I proceeded to go the further down the bed and make this wonderful discovery! I may have been a tad overly excited for this miniscule situation; I mean it is a garden after all, right? However, this was my first time ever working in a garden and to be thinking I would only be puling weed after weed for 4 hours, to discover over a hundred fully developed carrots seemingly jumping from the ground as I pulled was quite thrilling. Not only did I assist in pulling weeds/carrots and turning soil, but I also painted the numbers that would be placed on the beds. It felt nice to contribute to a club I had never heard of until that day, but suddenly having a new found appreciation for it due to the work and joy I got from working for the organization.

            The first lesson this experience relates to would be chapter seven when the book spoke about genetically modified food. The reason it relates so greatly to this would be because every fruit and vegetable from the garden was organic and not genetically modified whatsoever. This is important because we are surrounded by food that is genetically modified, and this is the future of food, however because we have the ability to grow food that is organic, it is nice to know that as long as there is land it is possible for organic food to be grown. The second lesson this experience relates to would be chapter 3 when nutrients are discussed. This related to the garden because without the nutrients from the fertilizers and manure, the soil would become infertile and unable to provide the seeds with the nutrients to produce the fruit and vegetables. Lastly, my experience relates to the agricultural revolution from chapter 1. For obvious reasons, the agricultural revolution was a time when people began to grow crops, which is what was done at the UWF community garden. This is important because we still practice things that began from the agricultural revolution.