By Guest blogger: Urban Ag Ambassador, Julia Featheringill
It would be impossible to sum up in one blog post the totality of my amazing experience this spring and summer with the Urban Ag Ambassador program and my volunteer work with the Somerville Community Growing Center. Promptly after I graduated from the Urban Ag program I got to work in my own backyard building a 4’x8’ raised garden bed and tapped all of my new-found knowledge to prepare the soil, map a plan for planting based on sun exposure and build a drip irrigation system fed from a rain barrel. Check out my super happy garden! Looking forward to the seasons ahead where I can fine tune my skills!
I was so excited to be place with The Somerville Community Growing Center for my 30 hrs. of service. It’s an incredible urban oasis, something between a community garden and a botanical garden, which is run by the most amazing group of dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers. My first task there was to help in planting the container garden which, among other things, contained the heirloom tomato plants that were grown for years by Guy (now deceased), a long term volunteer at the Growing Center. I felt so honored to be able to help carry on his legacy. At harvest I was able to take a couple of Guy tomatoes home with me and will try seed saving for the first time in hopes that I’ll be able to start some seedlings to return to the Growing Center next year.
I didn’t realize when I started working at the Growing Center that my first year there would be the last year in it’s current form (after 25 years!!) as they are about to undergo a significant renovation. Much of my work there later in the summer was contributing to preparations for the renovation. There was a lot of rock moving, supply purging and assessment, plant relocating, but I would say my biggest accomplishment was mucking out the pond and pulling out the liner so that the pond could be filled in and turned into a rain garden. That was some hard work but I did get to wear waders for the first time which was exciting.
And then there is Joey, the neighborhood cat that greets everyone at the Growing Center seemingly at all hours of the day. He just makes everyone happy so I thought he deserved a mention.
I truly can’t say enough about how amazing this season has been, how much I have learned and how many incredible people (and cat) I have met and I can’t wait for so many more to come!