June 27, 2007
Loading Up for the Taste of Chicago
Three trucks came from the city today to pick up some of our materials we will be using at the Taste of Chicago. We were able to fit our two compost bins and eight earthboxes into their trucks; our projects are finally on their way.
Next, we used the Gator to spread mulch in the beds around the grounds. As we were doing this a man who helped with the development of the farm about six years ago came by and we took him on a tour. We drove around on the Gator and showed him our gorgeous school, the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
Tomorrow we will be working at the Taste of Chicago helping to set up the Going Green area.
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Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:15 PM | Permalink |
June 27, 2007
Getting Ready for the Taste of Chicago
Hello and welcome back. We are currently finishing up building a compost bin and a worm bin for the Taste of Chicago. Justin Cummings, Academic Hourly, has been helping us. It has been a new experience of its own, and we have learned a lot about craftsmanship. For example, we now know what it is like to not measure perfectly and have to go back and re-cut pieces to make them fit. Also, there are some types of wood that don't work with certain sized nails and because of this the wood cracks! Finally, always use newspaper to protect the ground when staining because stain does stain even concrete.
We were landscapers the past few days. The University of Illinois Extension has a series of demonstration gardens at the Ag School. Over the past few days we tilled the beds and layed mulch. This job is labor intensive, but there is one upside to it, we get to use the Gator. What is the Gator? It is the greatest invention known to any true landscaper. It is a combination between a dump truck and a golf cart. This vehicle made our task much less time consuming and allowed us to do an efficient job.
Tomorrow we will be having working with children from Mt. Greenwood Park's Special Recreation program. We will be teaching them how to plant in our earthboxes. They will also be planting some peppers and doing some weeding in the Mt. Greenwood Children's Garden.
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June 26, 2007
Gardening with Kids
Today was an eventful day with the kids from Mt. Greenwood Park's Special Recreation program. We had fun with the kids by doing a variety of gardening activities. The first thing we did was a search and discover game that consisted of the children crawling around under our cob structure, which is a large table made out of straw, mud, and manure built around a tree in search of little toys and prizes. Then we showed the children the importance of weeding and tilling before planting. Once the beds were prepared by the children, they planted a variety of plants such as: tomatoes, annuals and peppers. They finished their gardening by watering the plants that they had just planted. The children learned a lot about gardening and we discovered how rewarding it is to help children learn new gardening experiences.
In addition to our time with the kids we also had some planting and repairs that needed to be done. In the flower beds near 111th Street we planted the Petunia Tidal Wave Hedgiflora 'Hot Pink'. These are vibrant pink flowers that if planted a foot apart grow to form a mound of bright, gorgeous color. We also fixed our wooden trellises. We measured out the amount of materials needed, cut the wood, and secured them in using screws.
Tomorrow we go down to the Taste of Chicago to help set up Cook County Extension's display in the Going Green area.
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June 22, 2007
Baling Hay in Chicago
Hello and welcome to the blog of Scott and Andrew, the Hoefler twins and summer interns for the University of Illinois Extension Urban Gardening program.
Before we describe our experiences as interns with Cook County Extension, we would like introduce ourselves. We are currently sophomore agriculture students at Iowa State University. Scott is a double major in Animal Science and Agricultural Business and Andrew is majoring in Animal Science and Food Science and Nutrition. Our interest in Agriculture began when we enrolled in the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Our experiences while working for Extension's Urban Gardening program in 2005 opened our eyes to a world of new opportunities and experiences in Agriculture that we were completely blind to. The Ag School and our work experience with Extension has led us to where we are today.
The past two days working for the Cook County Extension has been filled with excitement because the anticipated Taste of Chicago is on its way and there is much preparation to do. The University is promoting a Greener Chicago at the Taste this year, so as interns it is our job to aid in the promotion. One of our projects for the Taste is to build a wooden compost bin and a wooden outdoor worm bin.
We went to Home Depot to pick up lumber and other supplies for building the bins. Building the compost bins was very entertaining. We love to work with our hands and feel the accomplishment of cutting objects to size and creating something useful from scratch. The bins are coming along very smoothly and should be ready to showcase at the Taste.
In addition to our projects for the Taste of Chicago we are involved in the building of a golf course on the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences' acreage. Because the land allocated for development has mostly grassy plants, the school farmer is going to bail it and use it as feed for the many livestock here on campus. To do this he first mows down the grass into straight rows of hay. Then he drives over the hay with a hay press to create the bails. Once he has done this we hook a small tractor up to a large wooden wagon and toss the bails onto the wagon. The job is very labor intensive and there is a trick to stacking the bails so that they don't tip off the wagon. .
We hope that you would continue to follow us through our summer experiences with Cook County Extension.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:55 PM | Permalink |
