Thomas Eveler, 20, opens a cold frame at the Corvallis Service Consortium Youth House Gardens where onions have started, while Brian Smith collects materials to work on the drip irrigation system.. (Scobel Wiggins/ Gazette-Times)Last year, a garden took shape at the corner of Southwest Western Boulevard and Second Street, thanks to the work of young volunteers.
This spring, as tulips and daffodils brought the first color to the garden, more volunteers worked to improve the site with two major projects: the installation of a drip irrigation system and a “living wall” or vertical garden.
For the past couple of weeks, six members of the Community Services Consortium’s youth crew have been working on the two projects for the garden at the organization’s Youth House, a licensed alternative school.
One project, the vertical garden, is a chunk of garden soil over a rebar frame, covered with landscaping fabric and chicken wire. It doesn’t look like much now, but once it’s planted with tomatoes, peppers, peas and other vegetables, it will.
“By mid-summer, this thing will just be a massive plant,” said crew leader Brian Smith. The goal is to show what a little square footage, well-prepared soil and a simple support system can do. “That thing’s pretty cool,” said crew member Thomas Eveler, 20. “You can put a lot of plants in a small space.”
The drip-irrigation system will substantially cut down on water use for the raised beds and small green houses on the site, which are tended by youth garden volunteers. The goal of the youth crew is to build skills and give youth workforce development. Crew members said that goal already has been accomplished. They learned that a project like this requires a lot of planning and attention to detail — and that unanticipated challenges will crop up anyway.
“We had to run to Home Depot every day because there was a piece missing,” said Justin Schamp, 21, with a smile. Paul Christensen, 22, said he now feels he could install a similar system on his own. “Our crew leader taught us well,” he said. Karenna Rodriguez, 18, said learning skills was one of her favorite parts of being on the crew.
“Just a lot of new experiences,” she said. “I’ve never done piping before.”
Miranda Hedlund, 18, is planning to work on an organic farm in Texas this summer, where she will be installing a drip irrigation system. “So I’m definitely excited that we got to do this,” she said.
Miranda Headland and Karenna Rodriguez, both 18, glue pipe that will bring water to the raised bed. Behind them is the structure for a vertical garden waiting to be planted. (Scobel Wiggins/ Gazette-Times)
Produce and flowers grown in the garden were sold at the Corvallis Farmers Market last summer. Food from the gardens also is used for cooking and nutritional classes at the Youth House or donated to Gleaners.
“The project is really interesting because it comes from a lot of different funding sources,” said Rachel Karasick, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer who works as the youth garden program developer.
Dave Eckert, team coordinator for the Water Action Team of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition, said the group was deciding what projects to work on last year, and the Youth House Garden was one of the finalists. The group ended up not choosing the garden, but felt they wanted to do something for the site. The only “issue” to be addressed was irrigation, Eckert said. Team members helped raise funds for the irrigation project, and also connected the Youth House with Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, which ended up funding a large part.
Next up for the garden is a volunteer day in April to build more raised beds and the addition of an 8 by 15 foot greenhouse. “Things are always happening,” Karasick said.
This story was written by Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter Rachel Beck and was posted in the Monday, March 29th edition.
