乐播传媒

After a highly successful first growing season, you would think it鈥檚 now time for the 乐播传媒 garden, and the gardeners, to take a rest.

But in the garden on a windy, chilly mid-October morning, two 乐播传媒 students and a staff member are preparing for a new round of crops instead.

New plantings in Maine in October? You bet. Determined gardeners can extend the growing season well past summer with the right crops and the right infrastructure.

And so on this morning eight trays of cold-hardy seedlings 鈥� carrots, leeks, arugula, spinach, beets, chard, kale 鈥� sit near the 乐播传媒 trio in a patch of sun.

In a patch of shade, the three are tackling the infrastructure: five big heavy wooden cold frames. Sustainability Manager Tom Twist is building covers for the frames from wood and heavy translucent fabric.

Meanwhile, aiming to settle the frames into the soil by a few inches, Katharine Gaillard 鈥�19 of Boston and Olivia Kranefuss 鈥�22 of Madison, N.J., are carving out frame-shaped trenches with long-handled spades. The soil in the garden, aka the Plot, is heavy and gummy with marine clay, and the digging is slow.

Gaillard is making a bit more headway than Kranefuss. But she鈥檚 had a lot more practice than her first-year colleague. Gaillard and Josie Gillett 鈥�19 of Seattle spent the summer at 乐播传媒 as paid Plot interns 鈥� raising from that clay-heavy soil nearly a ton of produce that they delivered to Commons for campus consumption.

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The Plot: 2018 Yields (in pounds)

Tomatoes*	691.19
Cucumbers	439.10
Summer squash	672.79
Kale	72.15
Onions	1.13
Total	1,876.36

 

*Juliet, a grape tomato, was the most productive variety by weight, at 170.4 pounds.

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The pair, in short, got the Plot off to a resounding start.

鈥淚t was an excellent partnership,鈥� says Christine Schwartz, an early champion of the project and 乐播传媒鈥� assistant vice president for dining, conferences, and campus events. 鈥淚t was the dedication on the part of the students that made it so successful.鈥�

The Plot鈥檚 first summer was a win for all concerned. Gaillard and Gillet gained valuable experience growing vegetables to customer specifications. Commons got fresh, 乐播传媒-grown produce to offer customers at the vegan station and salad bar. And diners were pleased to chow down on the tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, and other crops.

鈥淭he produce was phenomenal,鈥� says Schwartz. (Some campus customers even got free vegetables to enjoy at home when the Plot supply outstripped Commons鈥� appetite in August.)

If a recent light frost, failing daylight, and a summer of production left the Plot looking dilapidated by mid-October, in its heyday the college garden was a stunner 鈥� long happy rows of summer squash, cucumbers, and kale, and 180 tomato vines reaching for the sky on tall trellises. (Onions were the only crop that didn鈥檛 thrive.)

Isa Moise 鈥�19 of Mount Vernon, N.Y., heard about the Plot all summer 鈥� she was doing research for the project while she worked a summer job (aquaponic farming, in fact) 鈥� but didn鈥檛 get to work in the 乐播传媒 garden until start of school in September.

鈥淚 was amazed at how big it was,鈥� says Moise, who has a job as operations manager at the Brooklyn aquaponic operation Oko Farms waiting for her after graduation. 鈥淚 had only heard the figures over the phone or over Facetime, but when I got there and could see the Plot 鈥� 鈥榃ow, this place is huge, and it鈥檚 producing so much.鈥�

鈥淭hen, to see the greens and the tomatoes that we grew on people鈥檚 plates in Commons, that was just super cool.鈥� Moise is co-leading the Plot with Gaillard this academic year (both are EcoReps, members of a student program undertaking campus sustainability projects).

Aside from tending the new plantings in the cold frames, what remains to be done in the Plot after 2018鈥檚 productive summer is cleanup: removing dead plants and apparatus like the tomato trellises, and mulching the beds with dead leaves that Facility Services will supply. Those chores will be done during 乐播传媒鈥� Nov. 4 EcoService Day.

As growers do, Moise and Gaillard are increasingly focusing on next year. One objective is to design a garden schedule, in light of this year鈥檚 experience, for their successors. Crop rotation, that tried-and-true means of keeping soil healthy with a minimum of fertilizer and other inputs, is part of the plan.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to lay out a framework to follow so that people know, 鈥榊ou鈥檒l grow this this year and you鈥檒l grow that next year, and this is why,鈥欌�� Moise explains. 鈥淵ou have to replenish the soil.鈥�

If Commons and its customers were pleased by the Black Cherry tomatoes and the Red Russian kale that poured out of the garden in July and August, the ultimate point of the Plot is teaching students. That entails all manner of practical skills (and not just wrangling clay soil), but a few deeper lessons have taken root in there, too.

鈥淓ven though a lot of meetings and planning happened before we did anything major,鈥� says Gillett, 鈥淜atharine and I had to do a lot of thinking on our feet to get things done well and efficiently. It was really cool to balance big-picture planning with on-the-ground decision making.鈥�

鈥淔arming is all about learning from your mistakes and being humbled by the environment,鈥� Moise adds. 鈥淵ou could lose a bunch of your tomato crops and you could get mad 鈥� or you could be like, 鈥極kay, what are we going to do now to fix this problem?鈥欌��

Rolling with circumstances is key, Gaillard agrees. And that encompasses the pleasures as well as the problems, a perspective that is valuable not only in the pressurized world of academics, but in the workaday world as well.

鈥淵ou have deadlines, and you have to do this by this time, and you have certain procedures that you have to do and that everyone does,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just the way my mind is trained to go, I think.鈥�

鈥淏ut the garden work is very much not that way.鈥� Some days during the summer, she鈥檇 find herself eyeing her watch as she hustled through the weeding and picking. 鈥淏ut then I鈥檇 always find myself going, 鈥楰atharine, you’re enjoying this. This doesn’t have to be rushed.鈥�

鈥淭hat balance is a nice one to have.鈥� That鈥檚 a reason, she says, 鈥渨hy I’m excited to get more students involved, and just have it be more of a part of campus.鈥�

Backed by Commons, the EcoReps, and sustainability manager Tom Twist, Moise and Gaillard are working a number of levers to enlarge the cadre of dedicated Plotters, which now stands at 10 or so.

鈥淭hat’s definitely the ongoing challenge,鈥� Gaillard says. 鈥淚f the dream is to be this space that students can go to and feel they鈥檙e a part of, and feel they have input in and connection to, how do we start that? We鈥檝e tried a bunch of things.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to enlist different clubs,鈥� Gaillard adds, pointing to the Cold Front ultimate club and 乐播传媒 Builds as participants this year. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to be like, 鈥榃e have common ground in this area.鈥欌��

Regularly scheduled open garden hours make it easy to drop in and work for a couple of hours. The 乐播传媒 Garden Club builds enthusiasm for the Plot through publicity and presentations on garden-related topics. On Oct. 9, the EcoReps event committee hosted a well-attended Garden Party.

鈥淭hat was awesome,鈥� Gaillard says. And while they鈥檙e not complacent about attracting new recruits to the cause, she and Moise are nevertheless pleased by the excitement they鈥檙e seeing among fellow students.

鈥淭here are people that come to open hours each week, or every time we host something, they show up,鈥� Gaillard says. 鈥淚 hear people telling their friends about it.鈥�