Garden Greenhorns: Some classrooms have garden beds instead of walls

an update from Garden Greenhorn and AmeriCorps VISTA Kelsey Grant

“Life already has so many boundaries and pressures - why add more in the garden?”

Felder Rushing

The first day of my Garden Greenhorn program! I was excited, anxious, and nervous. It was like the first day of school; not knowing anyone, what to expect, or how you are going to feel about it. The program runs for 12 weeks and meets every Monday and Wednesday morning. We usually finish our work around noon. This journey is different than school, because I was excited to be learning about something I was interested in. Unlike school, where I felt we were always memorizing facts and figures.

The day started out with knowing what “chores” the greenhorns were going to be responsible for. At first I was like chores… hold up… then I realized that it is just basic maintenance of the farm. We would be gathering the eggs from the chickens, feeding/ giving them water, and then watering the starts right outside the greenhouse/inside. It will be nice to have a routine and know what we will be doing each day when we get there.

The first lesson that we talked about was soil. The basic in’s and out’s of soil. The discussion and lecture was featured with some pictures. Once the group got into more of a formal lecture of it was like the farm manager, Carrie Hargrove, was reading us a science story about soil. I was surprised at how relaxed I had felt in learning so much. The pressures weren’t there like that of the classroom in writing every single thing down. 

Garden Greenhorns learn how to water starts on their first day. (Photo by Heather Gillich)

Wednesday’s session was much more of a physical hands-on day. After we finished our chores-feeding and watering-we got our hands dirty with the production process. Life does indeed have many boundaries. Rushing is right. However, these boundaries were just physical markers of where the beds are going to be to divide out the produce. When I think of the word boundaries. I think of how it seems so rigid, strict, and formal. In a garden the boundaries are to divide out the different areas to which plants are going to be growing in.

I felt much more at ease in asking questions and not feeling the pressures of “this has to be exact, right, and perfect”. The garden greenhorn program, I feel I am learning by asking and doing. I’m very excited for the next week of learning about different garden topics and then by practicing and applying them on the Urban Farm!