The Acadia Community Sustainable Farm

Admittedly, we’re behind in what you might call a “traditional” planting schedule - but who needs that kind of tradition anyway! The community garden is a vibrant looking plot of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, broccoli and peppers nowadays - we’re still in the process of preparing more land for late-summer plantings, but that hasn’t stopped us from getting some healthy looking plants in the ground. We’d still love to have you come down to the garden and stake out a plot, it’s not too late to plant fall crops of peas, beans, greens, maybe more!

We’re also planning to convene a meeting in the coming weeks where we can talk about a little more than the ups and downs of the planting season - by bringing together folks from all backgrounds in the Wolfville community, we’re looking to make the farm and garden as sustainable as possible throughout this growing season and the seasons to come. If you’d like to chime in with suggestions on how the garden can develop into a full-fledged community driven institution, we’d love to have your input. Either electronically (alex @ acadiafarm.org) or in person at the garden.

If you’d like to set up a specific time to meet up at the garden so you can share some of our tools, don’t hesitate to email or call. Thanks.

Assuming our enthusiasm for rototilling is matched by the machine we’re borrowing (thanks Janet and Bob!) - the community garden plots will be ready to plant tomorrow afternoon!

So:

Tomorrow afternoon, (Sunday, June 15) come down and stake out a spot, drop some seeds in and get those plants going! We’ll be working on the site earlier in the day, probably from 11 or so on, so if you find yourself with a few hours on what’s shaping up to be a beautiful Sunday morning, come down to the garden and dig your worries away.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

- alex

We’ve got ourselves a tiller - now we need a way to get it to Wolfville.

If you own a truck and wouldn’t mind spending an hour taking a beautiful scenic drive up to the North Mountain where you can meet some friendly goats, drop us a line. gas is on us.

if we can find a truck - we promise a planting bazaar throughout the weekend. huzzah!

There’s garden work to be done (bean planting, mulching, etc) and we’re going to work a little at 5 pm today, just for an hour or two.   (We’re going to try to plan for more after-work gardening so that more people might be able to make it… so don’t worry if you can’t make it today.)

Also, we’re going to rent a rototiller and push on with the tilling (since the borrowed tractor had to be returned), but before we can do that, we need to find a pick up truck.  (The ‘big’ tiller simply will not fit in Alex’s wee Saab…)  If anyone out there knows someone who’d be willing to help out in this department, please let us know.

see you in the field!

As the first week that really felt like summer winds down, we’ve made a huge amount of progress in  getting the garden prepared - but we’re just really realizing how much work remains to be done, and how hard it is to put all of the various pieces of this project together.

That said, a numerical review of the week and a, hopefully not too optimistic, timeline for the coming days:

1. The sod is removed! We now have seven beautifully grass-free parcels of land - each of which is approximately 20 x 80 ft. We’re hoping to set one aside for community garden plots, meaning there will be between 10 and 15 plots, depending on how we decide to size them. If demand for plots exceeds this number…great! We’ll cultivate another one of the parcels for community gardening! A reminder - if you’re interested in having a community plot, email Hillary at her snazzy new address: hillary@acadiafarm.org.
2. Two of these plots are already full fledged gardens! We’ve constructed four raised beds, (about 3 feet wide and running the full 80 feet of the parcel) and dropped in our tomato, lettuce, basil, and sunflower transplants. The other plot has two rows of mounds for cucumbers on either side of a row of pole beans. We’re trying to come up with creative ways to get water to the garden, but haven’t come up with any reliable solutions yet…well…at least none that don’t involve carrying incredibly heavy buckets back and forth from the spigot at the arena.
3. Three more of these plots are almost full fledged gardens. We’ve spread manure and a little limestone along with some old leaves we picked up from Valley Waste, but alas, we’ve already run into a snag.  Our tiller, borrowed for the duration of last week, broke down on Friday afternoon and had to return to its owner today, meaning we’re desperately seeking a plow or a rototiller to help us bust up the hard dykeland clay. As soon as we get our hands on a tiller…(ideas?), the community plots will be healthy and ready for planting and the farm planting can continue.

We’ll be updating this website almost daily with our plans for garden work throughout the week - but feel free to take a stroll down past the soccer fields to check the progress. Hopefully we’ll have some activities set for next weekend, so those of you with 9-5 jobs can get in on the fun.

Enjoy the warm afternoon, and don’t be afraid to start those rain dances.

Yesterday, thanks to a timely rendezvous with Peter and Garth and their pickup truck, we rented a sod cutter and started to clear off the garden site. Finally, things are under way!

We’ll be at the garden site today and tomorrow from around 10am to 4pm and extra hands are always wanted!
If you find yourself in possession of a decent mulch fork, an iron rake, or an edging shovel - today we’ll be needing em as we remove the rest of the sod and prepare the bed for the arrival of the first manure load.

Hope to see you down on the fields today.

As some of you might have read in Hillary’s last update - last week was a fairly hectic one for the future of the farm. The central issue was, as it so often is, location.

After surveying the proposed site near the Public Works building on Elm st. (hereafter referred to as ‘The Dump’) early last week, it became quite apparent that there were several overarching problems with starting a garden there. I’ll put up some pictures over the next few days, but my textual imagery will have to suffice as I walk through the concerns we had with transforming The Dump into The Farm.

First and foremost, size. The plot that the University had finally settled on giving to us was approximately 60′ x 200′, which works out to about one-quarter of an acre, a far cry from the acre we had hoped for (and bought seeds for). If we settled for a plot this size, not only would the production aspect of the farm be significantly hindered, but we’d have to slash the community plots from the project entirely…just not enough room. Add to this fairly major obstacle the fact that the garden would essentially be a foot and a half of healthy topsoil piled on top of 15 feet of clay packed down by years of heavy machinery, and the drainage and runoff becomes a serious problem.

Enter the new site - a patch of grass immediately to the east of the dykeland soccer fields (if you’re coming from the new trail behind the arena, walk to the end of the soccer fields and turn right, you’ll see it). The soil is heavy, the wind is strong, but it screams potential. There’s tons of space and tons of sun - we’ll just have to make the rest work.

So, now comes the hard part, turning a few acres of healthy lawn into a few acres of healthy farmland. Check out the EVENTS page for a description of what we’ll be doing throughout the week - culminating in some big deal ceremony on Saturday where we’ll plant some tomatoes, shake some hands, take some pictures and then, when the hubub dies down, plant some more tomatoes.

We’ll be working all week on preparing the site, so stop by and tell us how to do things better, we could use the help.

Other news: We’re really excited about being involved with NSYCC. We’ve put up a job posting in a few places around town and circulated it on several email lists - but if you know any young folks (you’ve got to be 17-24 years old and a returning student) who might be interested in food, farming, conservation, environmentalism, or racking up a disheartening number of hours of backbreaking menial labour, send them our way.

The plants are ready for their new home! Keep in touch!

A few big ticket items to report on this week.

First and foremost - we’re still waiting on the dykeland site. It’s a little frustrating, trying to bounce between people who might be able to get something done, only to find out you need to wait for them to clear it with someone else. But, as someone put it quite wellthe squeaky wheel is going to get the grease, so we’re going to keep squeaking. We’ve pushed back our timeline to hopefully getting into the ground on June 6. If we can get our hands dirty on the 6th, we’ll still have some time to plant, we’ll be able to publicize the date with some nifty groundbreaking ceremony complete with throngs of paparazzi and celebrity endorsements (shouldn’t be too hard to get an event like this onto CBC radio, I wouldn’t think). Keep your fingers crossed and feel free to write a letter to the University maybe - I can help point your eloquent interest in the right direction.

Some great news on the funding front. We’ve heard from the Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corps…and we’re in! The NSYCC pays three quarters of the salary and benefits for a team of four full-time workers in July and August to help out with environmentally-related projects throughout the province, and we’re lucky enough to be one of those projects. This means that if we can raise about $3000 (one fourth of the value of this team), the province will match it with $9000, and we’ll get some funded positions for people to work on the garden full time! We’re going to scrimp and save and try to come  up with a few fundraising ideas for the next month to make up that 3 grand - if you’re feeling like what you’re really missing this spring is some good ol’ fashioned organizing, let us know and we’ll put you to work.

We finally have some photos up. The pictures of the seedlings are nice, to be sure, but they’re already obsolete. The plants are huge! We’re moving them outside on cooler days now to try to harden them off and get them ready for the blazing sun outside - they’ll be ready to go as soon as we have the go ahead on land.

Coming soon, some compost bin construction and planting in the demonstration garden. Design ideas for both projects are always welcome!

Keep the faith and enjoy the sun, our hands will be dirty soon.

Hi Friends, hopefully we’ll get better at keeping this news page up to date so everyone can know how the project is progressing. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s been happening and what’s soon to be going on.

PLANTS:

They’re a-growing! Lettuce, tomatoes, beets, chard, herbs, beans, cukes, squash, zukes, they’re all started and thriving in the Irving Centre greenhouses. We tried putting them outside last week, but our basil and tomatoes didn’t respond too well, so they’re back inside and loving it. As soon as our permanent site is ready, we’ll drop them in the ground and let the magic happen.

LAND:

Good news and slow news. Good news first - the satellite garden at the cafeteria is staked out and ready for preparation. Check out our events page for a description of our little garden-work-get-together slated for Friday (May 16) at 10 AM. Bring a shovel and come help us dig! We’ve also got some garden design work to accomplish before the plants settle into their new home, if you’ve any nifty successes with companion planting, we want to hear from you!

On the slow news front, we’re still waiting for the main garden site to be cleared off. We’re waiting for the University to move some soil and some general construction junk and for the Town to move their piles of fill - we’re hoping for the action to be done by the May 24 weekend, so we’ll have to hustle to get our plants in once the soil is ready. It’s frustrating to not be able to do much planning on the site, but we’ll make the best of what we have available.

TOOLS:

We’re going down to Home Hardware tomorrow to negotiate a sweet deal on some tools. We’re hoping for the best.

PLOTS:

I know a fair few of folks who are mostly interested in the individual plots we’re going to offer up to the community. We’re not sure of the final dimensions of the dykeland plot (see the slow news above) so we’re not yet able to figure out how large the plots will be and how many we can offer, but updates will come as soon as we’re able to run some calculations.

That’s it for today - hope to see you all on Friday, and keeping checking back for the latest news.