Trip to MacLeish Station

[This is one in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer.]

A tour in a mountainous region on a nice sunny day can be interesting. Plus, on a hot summer day, working somewhere under tree shade can be enjoyable. This is what I got to experience on a day this summer when the Botanic Garden interns lent some support up at the MacLeish Field Station.

The MacLeish Field Station is a 240 acre property owned by Smith College, used for both academic research and leisure activities. I visited the Station once last fall with the Smith Outdoor Adventure team. Different from the yellow leaves and cool wind weather of fall, the MacLeish Station has a special beauty in summer time.

I went out with the Botanic Garden interns to work at the field station for one day with the interns who normally care for the Station during the summer. We placed cardboard on the beds created for planting new apple trees. This single task took myself and eight other students a whole morning to complete. In the afternoon, we added wood chips on top of the cardboard. I kept thinking that it’s somehow shameful how little help I provided, but after all the work to clear out weeds, I really was astonished to see how much change we had made. This is part of the beauty of gardening – the surprise you get after you’ve been focusing on a small spot of soil for a long time and then lifting up your eyes to see the whole picture.

Here are some photos from the day.

The apple orchard we worked on.

Artist in Residence Dan Ladd’s tree grafting installation.

The observatory at the station

The view to the Holyoke range that we got to enjoy.

-Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with them.

Sustaining Ourselves and our Communities

[This is one in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer.]

I come from China, a country with a large population but limited food supply. Due to the astonishingly rapid progress of urbanization in China, the agricultural lands available for cultivation have decreased significantly, resulting in an increasing number of people who either suffer hunger or eat food with undesirable quality every day. However, some low-quality foods isn’t derived from natural limitations, such as the richness of soil or the humidity of the growing area, but instead is the result of cost cutting measures and use and abuse of chemical herbicides or fertilizers.

The first time that I heard about the term sustainability was when I worked in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in Beijing, China. CSA farms have been settled in many countries and regions in the world. Having a CSA farm in your neighborhood infers that you will then have a greater chance to get access to high-quality, fresh, and organic local food. Purchasing a membership in a CSA is an investment in the local farm; the farmer gets your money up front, and, depending on the CSA you are joining, you are guaranteed a weekly “share” of whatever fresh vegetables, fruits, or meat is harvested from the farm. Each CSA is unique, but the ones I am familiar with deliver shares to member houses or drop them off  at neighborhood locations bi-weekly or weekly. Shares usually include 7-10 different types of produce, at least enough for a family of two. You can even request more of one kind of vegetable in place of another.

In order to find a way to produce “green” food in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, I spent a summer living and working on Little Donkey farm, a CSA farm in Beijing, China. There I learned how to recycle the rotten fruits, vegetables and certain types of weeds as components in organic fertilizers, how to use scented herbs instead of bug spray to protect agricultural products from pests, how to manage the farm as a self-sustainable area by saving as many products from the previous procedure to the next steps, and etc. At the CSA farm I worked, members understood that while their membership guaranteed that they would share in all the farm’s successes, it also meant they would share in the failures, too. For example, when the chickens produced fewer eggs but the potato harvest was greater than expected, members accepted that they would receive potatoes in place of eggs in their shares.

Before I worked on the CSA farm I used to believe that sustainability and food security were impossible problems to address. Though both are issues that affect everyone on earth the problems are way too big for me to solve or even worry about. However, now I have come to believe that no matter how big or small, tasks always require team work to be achieved. By helping garden at Smith and becoming a member in a CSA farm, for example, I am able to influence more people to follow my behaviors and spread more awareness of sustainability and food security issues.

Examples of CSA farms near Northampton for a good day tour:

Crimson and Clover Farm
215 Spring St, Florence, MA 01062

Mountain View Farm
393 East St, Easthampton, MA 01027

Enterprise Farm
72 River Rd, South Deerfield, MA 01373

Small Gifts Farm
1089 N Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002

Red Fire Farm
7 Carver St, Granby, MA 01033

-Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with them.

Morning Wake-up Working Party

[This is the fourth in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer.]

This week, in addition to the weekly Friday afternoon working party I offered a one-hour working party every morning from 7-8 a.m. I believe that being among green plants refresh people’s minds for a new day. Working one hour in the early morning, when the sun hasn’t risen high yet and the air still smells like dew can also be a good opportunity to get some exercise. In contrast to exercises like running and bicycling, with gardening you can see the real change you made to the land instead of just imagining how many calories you just burned. This can be one of the charming characteristics of gardening.

Peas are among the earliest produce shining under sun and rewarding my labor.

                                             Red currant fruit is plumping up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red raspberries are coming along.
                                                                                                       Blueberries too!

Bok choi always does well and the plants look so beautiful after taking a shower.

Swiss chard make me laugh with water drops on their cute leaves.

Even though I usually work alone, I enjoy my time watering the plants and preparing them for the dry and hot summer days. This week I got some help with watering from the sky above because it has rained almost every day. I have enjoyed eating my breakfast in the garden in the company of  birds singing pleasantly.

All sorts of beans (these are wax) have been my company for the past a couple of weeks.

-Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with others.

 

Farm Stand!

[This is the third in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer.]

July 7^th is a sunny Monday, and also my first farm stand day on campus. Since May, I have cared for the vegetables, herbs and fruits in the Smith Community Garden as they have grown and matured. I have been excitedly waiting to hold the farm stand and share my harvest with other people. Before actually picking the fresh produce at the garden this morning, I used to worry about not having enough for a two-hour farm stand. But then I lowered down my body and crawled under raspberry bushes to collect the reddish and good-looking fruits. I cut off onion leaves and mixed mustard leaves. I bowed down over the soil, and when I looked up to reach the green beans hidden under leaves and vines, I suddenly felt such a strong sense of appreciation deep in my heart. I praised the nature for their generosity and kindness of providing me all the harvests just like someone praising their gods.

I went to the Campus Center and got a big bright yellow paper to use as a poster for the farm stand. The CC staff also kindly provided me a table for displaying the produce. Placing out the labels with the prices that Kathy (from Dining Services) have helped me set, and arranging berries and beans in the lovely blue boxes, I felt like a real farmer-the people we see at Farmer’s Markets who usually collect fresh produce in the early morning, bring all the items to the market place, and are ready for selling by noon time.

To make sure that people get the most satisfactory and worthwhile produce, I carefully cut off all the withered or bug-bitten leaves. I also shook the dirt out of the roots so they are clean- though I left a little bit of the dirt as a sign that it’s organic and fresh.

                 The poster I made for the first farm stand in the summer of 2014

         View of the farm stand in front of Chapin House, facing Chapin lawn.

It was a really windy day! My first challenge was to find a way to keep everything from blowing away. After struggling for several minutes, I figured out how to keep everything either on the table or on the ground. As you can see from the picture above, the first farm stand wasn’t perfect, and I worried that its untidy appearance would keep people from stopping as they walked by. Luckily, some of my friends came and supported me by buying my produce, and locals even went home to get money to buy berries. Some volunteers who came to my Friday afternoon working party also dropped by. I even had an interesting conversation with a Museum of Art staff member about the challenges of getting fresh food that people face in his home country of Morocco. Our conclusion? The potential for gardening- on roofs and in small spaces – is very real for anyone who is interested enough. Sure, there are challenges, large and small, but with a little creativity there is no reason more people can’t plant vegetables or herbs on roofs, in pots, or in place of grassy lawns. Join us in the Smith Community Garden and you might just gain the skills and confidence that will help you launch your first home garden when you are ready!

People really love the raspberries and red currants
– they are a treat to look at AND eat!

Onions with their blossoms.

 
Fresh picked Bok Choy.

-Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with others.

A Trip to Mount Auburn Cemetery

[This is the second in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer.]

06/18/14

All the smith horticulture interns took a trip to the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Boston today. This cemetery was the first garden-cemetery established in the United States. I used to have the stereotype that cemeteries should be tombs arranged in rows and columns. In my imaginary cemetery, big trees are scattered and weeds knee high create a gloomy and fearful atmosphere. However, the trip today changed my mind sharply. It’s a brand new idea for me to think that a cemetery can also be a garden itself.

The reception building of the Mount Auburn Cemetery

Since a cemetery is usually mostly grass, it seems such a wise decision to turn what might be just a weedy landscape into a garden. This way, when people look out across the city, say, from Beacon Hill where the new State House is, the cemetery will not stand out as different or unsightly. A garden cemetery saves ground resources by having the function of a cemetery on a garden landscape, beatifies the urban area and incorporates beauty and function into the city plan.

The view from the highest point in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

A public monument.

A Victorian garden.

The path that curves in front of the church was originally for chariots to change direction. An increasing number of weddings are held at the church- perhaps because of publicity about the beauty of the landscape? Besides wedding ceremonies, it is also common for people to sit on the lawn in front of the church and have picnics under a beech tree planted by the Prince of Wales.

The purple beech tree, planted on October 19, 1860 by the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII).

The gravestones have been incorporated into the lawn. The lawn is mowed regularly and great care has been taken.

It is seldom to see such bright colored roses in a cemetery. With the flower petals raining down on the gravestones, the soul lying underneath may even smell the fragrance.

Willow Lake.

There are some grave markers settled around the lake. People who love water sports, like canoeing, kayaking and swimming might like to sleep permanently here. Green and blue algae used to be a big problem for the lake. However, a newly constructed drainage system now filters algae out, helping to avoid the eventual flooding that unhampered growth would cause.

-Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with others.

First Friday Afternoon Working Party

[This is the first in a series of posts by Junzhou Liu, ’17 about her experience as garden manager for the student-run Smith Community Garden and intern for the Botanic Garden this summer. Junzhou is a rising sophomore and a potential biochemistry major and economics minor originally from Beijing, China. This academic year Junzhou is moving from Park House, where she spent her first year, to Hopkins House, where she hopes to continue to meet new people and enjoy making and eating food from different cultures with others.]

06/06/14

Today was the first Friday afternoon work party. I was so nervous even after I prepared as best I knew how -with some help I sent an announcement about the work party on edigest, I asked a contact in the School of Social Work to announce it to students during their orientation, and an email reminder went out to students on the [ENVIRO] and SURF lists. I bought snacks and supplies, and  this morning I went to the garden and got the tools out of the storage room. I even found gloves for volunteers to wear. I kept feeling nervous until I welcomed the first student volunteer of my working party, Ann, who is a Smithie and works for a local radio station this summer.

Better than I expected, Joanne, Polly, and Jen all dropped by to help me differentiate between herbs and vegetable seedlings, and Joanne, Ann and Fiona (a SSW student) helped me a lot with weeding. We moved a bench from the raised bed side of the plots to the permaculture side. We weeded the area near the 10 raised beds and the two vegetable pots. We were also able to spread wood chips around each raised beds to help prevent the soil inside from getting washed out by heavy rain. Joanne helped us label plants in the garden and Polly helped us start kale seedlings in Capen greenhouse.

                                  Weeding the raised bed side of the garden plots.

I tried my best to take care of all my volunteers and ask them to get a drink after each 30-40 minutes ( I do really calculate the time by looking at my watch quite frequently). After we finished working for the day, Ann, Fiona and I sat around the picnic table in the shade and shared our stories. I felt satisfied with all we had accomplished, and proud of my work when they each told me how well-organized and interesting the working party was.