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.
