Planning, Planting, and Pests...

Hey hey! My name is Emma, I’m a rising junior from Oakland Township, MI  majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Geology and Environmental Biology. AKA, I love nature. That's why this summer I’m working with The Center for Sustainability and the Environment (CSE) through Albion College’s AmeriCorps program! Our goal is to combat the city's food insecurity crisis by growing crops at the Student Farm and Albion Community Gardens to provide for the public. This week was full of planting, planning, and pest control. We did a LOT, so let's get to it.

MONDAY

Monday started at the Albion Community Garden, where we were greeted bright and early by Professor Trisha Franzen and garden employees Sheridan and Kyndall. We then made our rounds making sure to keep an eye out for holes dug by groundhogs or rabbits. A baby groundhog had made its way into the community plot over the weekend, so we were sure to look extra carefully. Thankfully, no such holes were found. 

It’s finally berry season (the best time of year) and the strawberry plants are exploding. After picking through the row, we ended up with 7.5 lbs of strawberries! As a reward, everyone enjoyed a few berries before getting back to work harvesting. We then moved on to the asparagus row, where we managed to pick 4.5 lbs of purple asparagus stalks. I may or may not have eaten one raw, the crunchy treat was a needed snack after working in the sun. We left this produce at the farm stand and made a video letting community members know about the day's harvest.

We then moved on to the most dreaded task: the irrigation system. The Community Garden is equipped with a plethora of hoses and nozzles that when assembled correctly, will drip water down onto plants every day. Although convenient, setting it up is a pain. Drilling through thick rubber hoses with a tiny metal hole punch might not seem that difficult, but boy was it time consuming. 

After a good morning of work, we all took some strawberries and went on over to the Student Farm where many surprises would await us. 

The student farm has been plagued by a mysterious set of pests. Last week we arrived to find most of our tomato and pepper plant stalks chopped off about an inch from the ground, with the rest of the plant lying on the soil nearby. We had a few suspects: raccoons, rabbits, groundhogs, etc. The strange thing was, there were no tracks left behind. We were stumped until Professor Thom Wilch suggested a new critter: cutworms. These moth larvae hide in the soil by day but emerge at night to feed on plants. Though plausible for the plants, I still can’t put my finger on what's been digging up the pumpkin seeds I planted last week…

At this point, our team split up, with a few of us painting signs and the others lying down mulch around the hoop house to prevent critters from getting in. As I was finishing up my sign, when my fellow intern, Bonnie got my attention by yelling “Emma I have an egg for you” from over by the mulch pile. Naturally, I was intrigued. Bonnie had discovered a clutch of eggs in our mulch. As we dug through, we kept finding more and more. The 30 eggs were around the size of a golf ball and cream-colored, a dead giveaway of a snapping turtle. How a snapping turtle climbed our 6-foot-tall loose-mulch pile is a mystery to me, but I'm impressed nonetheless. After collecting them all, we dug a hole nearby and buried the eggs again. 

TUESDAY

Tuesday was a busy one, starting with transporting plants from Thom’s house to the Farm. We had lost so many plants, we needed to replace almost all of our tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. This time, we tried a new strategy when planting. While the cucumbers remained solitary in their row, the tomatoes and peppers were accompanied by marigolds, basil, and nasturtium to hopefully ward off the pests. To be extra careful, we wrapped each plant around the base with cardboard and planted a nail in the soil. These are supposedly tricks to deter cutworms, and boy do I hope they work. 

After making our anti-cutworm apparatuses, we headed on over to Wesley Hall to assist with box packing for the Albion Community Table. The Community Table assists citizens by providing bags/boxes of food three times a month. These boxes usually include some assortment of canned meat, vegetables, pasta, fruit, juice, milk, and bread. Packing the boxes took a little under an hour, and felt like I was at my old retail job all over again.

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, we returned to the Community Garden for another morning of harvesting. But while doing our critter patrol, two holes were noted by the fence in the berry patch. We quickly covered it up and kept a close eye out for any other secret animal tunnels. Once again we picked 7.5 lbs of strawberries and more asparagus. It seems like every time we pick them, there's even more two days later! 

Although fall seems far away, we started our pumpkins! Trisha had a wide variety of seeds, and each intern picked their favorite. I picked the mini harvest blend, which produces small short pumpkins that my family always uses as decorations during the fall. 

After that, we began weeding the Children's Garden portion of the area, a place to grow plants that educate and entertain younger kids. It includes signs like “peanut butter and jelly garden” in front of peanut and berry plants and “Can you grow french fries?” by potato plants.  

Near noon, Trisha showed us how to use an automatic seed planter: a machine that looks kind of like a scooter that deposits seeds and covers them up quickly. Using this nifty new tool, we planted some radish seeds and mustard greens. During this time, we received a disheartening message from Thom: our plants had been clipped once again. We lost some marigolds and yellow squash despite our efforts to deter the cutworms. We needed to reevaluate our pest control plan. 

THURSDAY

Today was quite possibly the best day so far of my internship. Why is that you may ask? Because I saw an animal I had wanted to see for a very long time out in the wild: a Polyphemus moth! Named after the cyclops Odysseus faces in the Odyssey, this giant silk moth sports spots that look like eyes on their wings to ward off predators. When I saw this creature outside on the stairs leading up to Bobbit, I almost screamed with excitement. I’ve attached a picture below because everyone deserves to see how marvelous this creature is!

Thursday was full of planting and crafting at the Student Farm. But first, we had an issue. Raccoon poop was discovered inside the gated farm area, meaning raccoons were able to get in somehow. To combat the ever-persistent animals making their way into our garden, we devised a new plan. Using chicken wire and garden stakes, we were able to make a fence wrapping around the heavily snacked-on crops like cucumbers and tomatoes. After our crafting, it was back to planting. Today's selection was lettuce, watermelon, and mustard greens. To prevent the leafy collards from being eaten (like our kale was) we made a mini-hoop house over them! The last thing we did Thursday was finish setting up our drip-line irrigation system. Though not as tedious as the one at the Community Gardens, it was still a pain.

FRIDAY

Friday was finally here! To end off an amazing week, we continued our work at the Community Garden. Once there, Trisha put us to work in the Children’s Garden: raking out a path and lining it with beautiful yellow marigolds. After that, it was once again time to harvest! We ended up with 2.5 lbs of asparagus, 5 lbs of strawberries, .5 lbs of garlic scapes,

and a handful of red raspberries. 

The raspberries weren’t as juicy as I hoped, but delicious nonetheless. We also did one of my favorite things out in the Children’s Garden: building! One of our community gardeners has constructed an amazing tower for her beans to grow on, and Trisha wanted us to make something similar. After about 20 minutes and a lot of sticks and twine, it was finished. Around the bottom of our structure, we planted indigenous beans, including those grown at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s estate). *to those unaware, Jefferson himself did not tend for these seeds, but the slaves he owned. *

After a restful lunch, we once again made our way to Wesley for a food pantry distribution. This time community members walked through our pantry, picking a selection of foods that they wanted specifically. We then begged up their food and carted it off to their vehicles for them to take home and enjoy.

SATURDAY

Saturday was short, but eventful. Fellow intern Bonnie and I worked with Thom to fix the gap that resided between the bottom of our hoop house and the ground. To do this, we measured and cut planks of wood until they fit almost perfectly. We then stapled chicken wire onto the wood and shoveled dirt onto the wire, hopefully making an effective barrier for critters.

SO FAR

So far, this internship has been an amazing opportunity. Getting to be out in nature every day has done wonders for both my mental and physical health. This internship also gives me a sense of purpose. Whether I'm planting, helping at the food distribution centers, or even reading environmental justice books, I feel good.

WILDLIFE OF THE WEEK

Pictured: A green frog found in the farm porta-potty (ew) and a fat bumblebee on Ashlynn's water bottle