Garden Talk: Thriving year for food bank garden

By: Maggie Counihan, food bank garden coordinator,Washington Conservation Corps, Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program

Summer squash growing fast and furious

The changing seasons concluded another great year in 2014 for the Food Bank Garden at Ecology’s Lacey Building. My predecessor, Kate Nagel, did a wonderful job coordinating more than 150 volunteers throughout the year. The volunteers — mostly Ecology employees — donated more than 200 hours.

They harvested 1,849 pounds of food, including squash, tomatoes and corn, which was donated to the Thurston County Food Bank. A WCC crew constructed a compost bin last January, which continues to churn out compost. The annual Earth Day plant sale last April was very successful and raised funds for the continued operation of the garden.

Bundles of garlic drying after harvesting

Ecology’s Food Bank Garden has been in operation since 2011. Since it started, there have been more than 500 volunteers from Ecology and local schools. The garden has produced more than  8,500 pounds of produce, all of which has been donated to the Thurston County Food Bank, and helped to expose people to gardening and community service.

Congratulations to all the volunteers on another successful year! Thank you for all the time and hard work you put into the garden. Without your continued support, the garden would not be what it is today.  As the new coordinator, I am excited to help nurture such an abundant garden.

Corn, tomatoes and sunflowers ready for delivery to the food bank

We’re looking forward to another productive season.  Work parties will resume in the spring.

To be added to the volunteer list email: maggie.counihan@ecy.wa.gov

Composting at the office turns would-be waste into valuable product

By Michelle Andrews, organics specialist, and Erika Holmes, communications

Food is the largest component of our garbage by weight, at 17 percent in Washington and 21 percent nationwide. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, about 40 percent of the food grown in the United States isn’t eaten. Meanwhile, about 15 percent of our population doesn’t know where their next meal will come from.

Garden Talk: The garden in full bloom

By Kate Nagel, food bank garden coordinator, Washington Conservation Corps, Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program

In the last couple months, Ecology’s Food Bank Garden has transformed from dirt, small plants, and weeds, to a gorgeous display of flourishing vegetable plants!

More than 400 winter squash plants take over the back half of the garden, spreading their green leaves and vines across rows. Sunflowers, soon-to-be-harvested garlic, tomatoes, and onions steal the show in the front. Corn completes the garden, quickly filling in the middle rows. Because wildflowers self-distributed around the garden, we even have a sprinkling of added color to admire.

Join in the fun!

There’s nothing like getting some fresh air and gardening therapy in the middle of a long day. Garden work parties take place Tuesdays and Fridays during lunchtime (12-1 p.m.). Contact Kate Nagel for more information.

Olympia Seed Exchange

Did you know that Olympia has its very own Seed Exchange group? This local non-profit organization promotes seed trading and seed education throughout the community. During the Food Bank Garden’s recent Garden Celebration on June 18, the Olympia Seed Exchange donated seeds for the day.

What is their simple exchange method? Take seeds that you need, and add seeds to the collection for others. However, you don’t need to leave seeds in order to receive. The seeds available at the Garden Celebration ranged from packaged corn, beans, and cucumbers, to home-saved kale, quinoa, and flower seeds.

Check out what the Olympia Seed Exchange is all about, along with their upcoming schedule.

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Garden Talk: Time to Plant!

By Kate Nagel, Food Bank Garden Coordinator, Hazardous Waste and Toxic Reduction Program, Washington Conservation Corps

 

Saturday, May 3rd Planting Event

A flowering winter squash plant
from last season's garden.

Come plant winter squash at the Ecology Food Bank Garden on Saturday, May 3 from 9am-2pm! Lunch and tools provided. All levels of gardening experience are encouraged to join! Bring your family and friends as well as gloves if you have them. Please RSVP.

Lunchtime and after-work gardening parties will also be starting soon. To get on the garden volunteer list or for more information, please contact Kate Nagel.

Need some incentive to get out to the garden? Read about why gardening is good for your health!

The Food Bank Garden is a great way to get volunteer hours and give back to the community. Last year, with the help of hard-working volunteers, the garden donated over 2,000 pounds of produce to the Thurston County Food Bank. The Food Bank hands these vegetables directly to our fellow community members in need!

Ecology's garden is located at the Washington Department of Ecology, 300 Desmond Dr. SE, Lacey(garden located in the meadow near the far parking lot).

Newspaper pots: Tips for saving money and reusing

Because squash have fragile root systems, planting starts directly into the ground without disturbing their roots is helpful. Using peat pots is one option, or if you are interested in saving money and reusing too, newspaper pots are a great alternative.

During a recent lunchtime work party, volunteers made newspaper pots for the garden's winter squash starts. There are hundreds of tutorial videos online if you type "newspaper pots" or "newspaper pots origami" into your search engine. Any newspaper should work great, but don't use the glossy pages or pages that use a lot of color ink. Once created, put pots into a tray to contain water, but be sure to allow for airflow. Roots will begin to grow through the paper if they become too large. At this point (or a little before) you will want to begin hardening your plants; here is a good description of this process. Once hardening is complete, carefully place start into the hole, newspaper and all!

Students water their newly planted squash seeds.

Three classes at a local elementary school volunteered to host several trays of squash seeds. The students learned how to plant the seeds and are now responsible for watering them and watching them grow!

Ecology's garden is hoping to grow about 500 winter squash plants this season. This is the first year the garden is using the newspaper pot method to grow starts, and we are excited to see how they turn out!

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Garden Talk: Ecology's Food Bank Garden gets a new compost system

By Kate Nagel, Food Bank Garden Coordinator, WCC Outreach Assistant, Hazardous Waste Toxics Reduction Program

The Food Bank Garden's new compost!

Come take a look at our newest addition! Next time you go for a stroll behind the Lacey headquarters building, keep an eye out for the bright new compost container now taking up residence in the garden.

Washington Conservation Corps members lend a hand to community gardens

Teamwork during assembly.

On January 21st, as part of their Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) week of service, a group of 15 Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) AmeriCorps members and WCC staff braved the cold to build a hot compost container for Ecology’s Food Bank Garden. The three-bin compost system will allow Ecology’s volunteer gardeners to turn garden scraps into fresh soil. This improved method of handling in-garden waste material replaces the uncovered piles of garden debris at the back of the garden.

A benefit of the new hot compost system is the ability to quickly turn discarded plants into healthy soil. Additionally, there is a lower risk of unwanted plant seeds returning to the garden either by hand or wind.

Proud WCC members next to the completed compost bin.

During the MLK week of service, WCC members also spent time assisting Kiwanis Olympia Food Bank Gardens, GRuB, and several other community gardens around the state. Members helped with garden work such as spreading and turning compost, weeding, planting garlic, cleaning garden areas, garden maintenance and more.    

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Garden Talk: Food Bank Garden ends the year with a stunning harvest

By Kate Nagel, Food Bank Garden Coordinator 



Potatoes ready to be cleaned and delivered to the  
Thurston County Food Bank

Volunteers from the Department of Ecology and the community brought in a harvest of almost 1,400 pounds of food during the Saturday, Oct. 5, Garden Harvest. Included in the totals were 1,012 pounds of potatoes, 372 pounds of squash and eight pounds of beets.

This year’s garden reached a stunning total of more than 2,000 pounds of produce.  The crop included lettuce, tomatoes, beets, basil, garlic, leeks, carrots, parsley, squash, potatoes, cosmos, marigolds, and sunflowers.

This is the largest yield in the garden’s three year existence; 2011 brought in 1,690 pounds and 2012 brought in close to 1,000 pounds of food.
All produce is donated to the Thurston County Food Bank for distribution.  Heather Sundean, produce manager at the food bank participated in this year’s harvest.



“The produce donated from Ecology’s garden is always gorgeous – it’s obvious when you see it that a great deal of care went into growing it, packing it, and delivering it to the Food Bank’s doors,” Sundean said.

“This summer Ecology donated some of the biggest heads of romaine lettuce I think I’ve ever seen! This fall’s harvest party was a lot of fun. The staff from Ecology and volunteers were so enthusiastic about helping, and certainly weren’t afraid of getting their hands (and sometimes backsides) in the dirt. We plan to reserve the squash to be included in our Thanksgiving boxes next month.”

The garden is run almost entirely by a group of dedicated volunteers. Starting with preparations and planting in the spring all the way to the fall harvest, Ecology employees volunteer their time on lunch breaks, evenings and weekends.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed in the 2013 garden efforts! And special thanks to Laura Inouye, who volunteers countless hours in the garden, and provides her valuable gardening expertise. She really is the roots that keep the garden growing!

While the 2013 season is coming to a close, there will be plenty of volunteer opportunities starting again in early spring of 2014. To be added to the volunteer update list, send an email to kate.nagel@ecy.wa.gov.

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Garden Talk: Food Bank accepts flowers, too!

by: Marisol Novak, Garden Coordinator

Row of Marigolds lining the edges of the garden

Who doesn’t like the sight of towering sunflowers in the summer? This year, Ecology’s Food Bank Garden accepted a generous donation of sunflower starts to brighten up the fallow side of the field. The cheerful sunflowers not only dazzled those passing on their lunchtime walks around the meadow, but the topic of flowers in the vegetable garden raised a few questions. “What are you going to do with the sunflowers? Will the Food Bank even accept flowers?”

The answer to the latter is yes; the Thurston County Food Bank happily accepts flowers. Trader Joe’s grocery store regularly donates the bulk of fresh cut flowers to the Food Bank, so Ecology’s garden team decided to follow a similar model. After the sunflowers grew tall and healthy, the team donated the flowers for others to enjoy. Garden volunteers clipped and bundled the flowers before delivering them to the Food Bank.

Flowers are lively and fun, but they also create diverse and successful ecosystems necessary for healthy gardens. Flowers attract a variety of pollinators and pests. Ecology’s garden planted a row of Marigolds, which are known to attract slugs and other pests, leaving vegetables to thrive. Come check out Ecology’s flower varieties!

What’s happening in the garden?

On October 5^th, from 9:00-2:00, the garden team is hosting the annual Potato Harvest. Lunch is included! Contact Laura at lino461@ecy.wa.gov with questions.

Not partial to potatoes? Don’t forget to visit us in the garden on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00-1:00 for weekly work parties.

Buckets of sunflowers donated to the Food Bank

Tall sunflower stalks in Ecology's garden

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Garden Talk: Garden Celebration sparks new interest in Ecology’s garden

Staff volunteer musicians. From the left:
 Laurie Morgan, Josh Grice, Gary Koshi, Diana Olegre, Greg Pelletier

by Marisol Novak, Food Bank Garden coordinator

What started off as a grey morning, turned into the perfect sunny day for a Garden Celebration at the Lacey headquarters Food Bank Garden. The sun perked up right around noon, allowing guests to mingle underneath the large tents, enjoying delectable treats and live music. The Department of Ecology’s Sustainability Team sponsors the Food Bank garden. Team members volunteered to bring in snacks and set up the lunchtime event with the help of additional staff and the garden team.

The Food Bank Garden is run primarily on donations and volunteers. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the large contribution of vegetables produced each season as well as allow Ecology staff members to tour the garden and spark conversation.

In addition to food and music, Michelle Andrews, Ecology employee and master composter, chatted with guests about composting tips. Heather Sundean represented the Thurston County Food Bank and discussed the connection between the department’s organic garden and the clients served at the Food Bank.

All in all, there was great turnout of guests at the Garden Celebration, creating a fun and energetic lunch hour. A big thanks to all the volunteers, guests and musicians for a wonderful afternoon!

Department of Ecology's Garden Celebration

 

Michelle Andrews offering composting tips to guests.

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Garden Talk: Mid-summer crops are flourishing

by Marisol Novak, Food Bank Garden coordinator

Knee-high broccoli plants

This week at Department of Ecology’s Food Bank garden in Lacey, Washington, the vegetables are maturing rapidly. Last week’s showers followed by warm and sunny weather have allowed the crops to flourish. Broccoli plants are knee-high, while the beets and lettuce have already been harvested.

In case you’re wondering where all the food goes, all the produce grown in the garden is donated to the Thurston County Food Bank. Department of Ecology staff are welcomed to volunteer in the garden on their lunch breaks and after work. Come visit us in the garden on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00-1:00pm.

Here are some vegetable varieties already harvested this summer:

55 pounds of lettuce.

Over 100 pounds of beets.

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Garden Talk: Volunteers feeding the success of community garden

by Marisol Novak, Ecology's garden coordinator

Volunteers planting potatoes on May 18th, 2013.

Food Bank Garden at the Department of Ecology.

Beginning in 2011, the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Sustainability Team sponsored the development of an organic Food Bank garden. It is located behind the agency’s headquarters building in Lacey, WA in a sprawling meadow. The Washington Conservation Corps and department staff donations continually support this community-style garden. Department staff volunteer on their free time, during the lunch hour and after work. The garden team donates all the food grown to the local Thurston County Food Bank.

In the garden’s first year, potatoes were the sole crop. This year, however, the Food Bank Garden has expanded its crop variety to include a long list of vegetables. Today in the garden you will find lettuce, spinach, beets, squash, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots and a few herbs such as cilantro, basil and rosemary. Generous donators even contributed sunflowers, marigolds and cosmos!

On May 18^th, 2013, 20 volunteers made up of Ecology staff, as well as students from high school and The Evergreen State College, volunteered in the rain to plant potatoes and tomatoes for the season. With so many helping hands we even laid down irrigation for the summer season.


Anyone interested in volunteering in the garden either during the week or on weekends, contact Mari Novak @ mnov461@ecy.wa.gov.

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