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Hello:  This came to me from Stefan and needs to be read immediately.    I am guessing Hort Club will be managing this.  I will post any further communications I have with Stefan.  Thanks, Peggy

Community Garden at LBCC

The LBCC Horticulture program and the Horticulture Club propose to establish a small community garden at the LBCC organic farm. In the first year we would devote one small 48 x 25’ field to this project. This would not interfere with our crop rotation, course needs, and crop production for culinary arts.

The field would be divided into eight 12’x12’ plots.  The eight plots would be available to community members (including LBCC staff and students) on first come, first serve basis. We propose to charge a small fee for two reasons: 1) to cover (at least partially) the cost of inputs,  and 2) for community members to show a commitment to their respective gardening plot.

We propose to charge $30 per plot in 2010 because the spring growing seasons is already over when the project gets started. In the future, the fee maybe $50 for an entire growing season.  If LBCC students garden in a plot we expect that they could be reimbursed by a grant from Associate Student Government (ASG) and/or the Student Programming Board (SPB). Both LBCC student organizations appear to be highly supportive of the idea of a community garden at LBCC.

 Materials and services needed for the community garden

• Gardening tools
  • The Horticulture Club will buy the necessary tools from funds received from the ASG.
• Tool Shed
  • There is an older, currently unused shed that was given to the Hort program by the former industrial division. It is currently at the grounds compounds. It  needs some minor repairs and has to be moved closer to the field. The Hort Club would be make the necessary repairs.
• Fertilizer, compost, seed, mulch
  • Gardeners will supply these inputs themselves. Pesticides will not be permitted.
• Water
  • The irrigation system at the organic farm is connected to Albany city water (i.e. not the LBCC grounds well). The water will be provided by LBCC and is the only real cost to LBCC; estimated water use:  20,000 gal (see calculations below).
• Tillage in the spring
  • Tillage will be provided by LBCC Hort Program staff. Tillage of this small field will be a minimal effort (approx. 15 minutes) and will occur at the same time the other production fields are tilled.

• Supervision/Management/Person of contact
  • We have not decided on the management of the community garden. With only eight plots we do not expect this to be a major effort but know that we need a go-to person. Several possibilities include:
    • Hort program students who work on the farm over the summer and receive Special Studies or Hort practicum credits would take on the management of the community garden plots as one of their responsibilities
    • Americorp/Vista volunteers
    • CWE or Service Learning students 

Water Use:

Drip irrigation water use for one production field (1000 ft² cropping area)

May - June

1 inch per week = 0.5 gal per ft² per week > 1000 x 0.5 = 500 gal

500 gal per week x 9 weeks = 4500 gal

July – September

2 inches per week = 1 gal per ft² per week > 1000 x 1 = 1000 gal

1000 gal per week x 15 weeks max water use time = 15,000 gal

April/ October

Occasional water use > 500 gal

 Total water use: 500 +15,000 + 500 = 20,000 gal