Friday, June 14, 2013

Digging in the dirt

Earlier this month I found a great opportunity to volunteer with Fresh Roots Urban Farm to set up a farm garden on what I believe is technically the school grounds that is now opened up to the community as a multi-use space (an off-leash dog area, and now a food producing garden.  With no fences separating the two thusfar, I assume that dogs fouling on the veggies won't be a major concern.  We've painted plenty of  'Please clean up after your dog' signs, and trust that common sense and social responsibility will prevail), as well as an outdoor classroom for the students to visit. 

The planting, maintenance, harvest, and sale of the crops will be managed by the Fresh Roots farmers, so really our work that weekend was mostly moving earth.  Giant piles of earth wheelbarrowed, shovelled, and raked into orderly foot-high rows.  I spent an afternoon on Saturday and a full day on a Tuesday with a great mix of parents teaching their kids, office professionals teambuilding, university/college students applying their biology program education, and earthy hipsters not afraid to get dirty.  I would definitely be up for doing this again in the future.
 
This involved some of my favorite things;
- community involvement for a worthwhile cause I support.
- contribution to a group project with pleasant friendly people.
- digging in smelly, honest earth. AKA gardening.
- the fresh air and sunshine (thankfully it wasn't raining, or my post about digging in mud would have a very different tone).