Service Learning - Campus Community Farm work party.

March 6^th 2017 I decided to do my 2-hour service learning activity at our Campus Community Farm to learn about ecologically friendly community resources and provide a peaceful and relaxing area for students to enjoy. The Farm work parties is an event that all are welcomed to joined and is organized by Carla Tjung: carla.tjung@email.edcc.edu.

Farm work parties start off by a tour given by the event organizer, where volunteers are taken around to see and learn the purpose of various structures that other volunteers and community farm workers have built.

Some examples of what we have at our community farm are; the hoop house. A large hoop shaped cover made of plastic whose purpose is to provide the crops inside with a slightly more stable environment during the harsh weather conditions. In addition, the crops in the hoop house were covered in a white fabric that also helped to insulate heat.

Another would be the worm casting bins where the worms inside the bins digest compost and produce worm castings fertilizer. The compost used to feed the worms comes from the compost bins around EDCC campus where after the castings produced are then used as fertilizer for the crops in the gardens.

There was also a Bug Hotel made up of recycled Dead wood, cardboard, hay, dry sticks and bricks to provide insects with a place to live, not only that it works as a way of keeping insects that may harm the crops away and insects that help them coming.

After a full tour had been given we divided into groups where we were each assigned a task with an objective of maintaining crop patches to keep the farm clean. My groups first task was to categorize new seeds by types and by alphabetical order, which helps with easy accessibility when trying to find seeds needed when it comes time to plant. Our next task was to plant sugar snap pea seeds in the hoop house for the upcoming spring, and last task was to do weeding in the in the hoop house.  

Working at the community farm allowed me to learn about how biological factors like insects can either help or hinder how successfully the crops are maintained. Learning about how the bug hotel can provide a safe dry place for insects to hide, hibernate and have young. The insects that live in the bug hotel eat problematic garden insects a process which is called bio control. Through knowing this the community farm can use this structure as a form of natural non-chemical repellent keeping the crops safe. 

During my learning service experience, I was able to observe various biological things at work, one specifically would be the earth worms from the compost bins. Earth worms belong to the phylum Annelida and class Oligochaeta, and they have hydrostatic skeleton with antagonistic muscle groups that cause the shape of their hydrostatic skeleton to change which allows for their locomotion. These muscles are longitudinal and circumferential which are used to retract and contact its body through the decrease or increase of certain segments throughout the worms’ body which all in turn leads to their ability of being able to move around the best on flat surface areas like soil.

Questions?

1. What other structure are being planned to be built next and how will they help the farm?
2. How does worm compost fertilizer compare to other types of fertilizer?
3. How long does it take for the earthworms to go through compost and produce worm casting?
4. What kind of rain water systems are used throughout the farm and how are they more ecologically efficient?