Service Learning Essay

Naomi Eguchi Faletti 6/12/17

Campus Community Farm for two hours: May 8, 2017, 3pm-5pm.

Sponsor: EDCC

Coordinador: Carla Tjung.  Carla.tjung@gmail.edcc.edu

Edmonds Campus Community Farm raises organic vegetables, edible trees, shrubs, bee-loving flowers, and plants with the idea of maintaining a self-sustainable garden. Through the use of earthworms, honey bees, organic compost, onions around the garden for insects repellent, 1000 lady bugs, wine bottles to retain heat around the garden are just to name a few  of the techniques used to help the garden be self-sustainable.

My role was to pull weeds in the garden so that vegetables and fruit had enough space to grow and receive plenty of sun.  Without interruption of weeds to take the nutrients from the soil around them the garden plants could thrive.  I also harvested vegetables for the college café to use the next day. At the end, we could take kale, beets, leek, onion, lettuce, spinach, rosemary, rhubarb, cilantro, and sage home for or own use.

                                       My vegetarian Professor, Gwen from the Marine Bio class : )

The Service Learning activity at the Community Farm made me realize when an ecosystem is functioning in fine balance, the garden can self-sustain without pesticide. When plants produce healthy harvest, they help support each other along with other species to maintain a healthy balance. A garden full of lady bugs, earthworms, and onions all around it uses symbiotic relationships to work the ecosystem. This use of science at the farm collaborated with volunteer efforts to remove invasive plants to establish a truly native environment. Along with well drain soil created by irrigation, rain guards, watersheds, the Community Farm does not require pesticides to maintain nutrient rich and beautiful produce. The vegetables I took home from the harvest on that day were very tasty; it actually tasted sweet and almost did not need dressing to enjoy for dinner. It was very satisfying and I still had some left for next few days in the refrigerator but they all stayed fresh as if it was just harvested. The learning activity illustrates that even in an urban setting a farm-to-table environment to complement your diet can be established. This has great potential in the Pacific Northwest bioregion as less land is available to grow local produce. 

The experience at the garden reminded me of starfish wasting syndrome that we studied in class. Starfishes are very susceptible to temperature, pH level, and virus according to marine biologists.  Starfishes are easily effected by environmental changes. As a keystone species, the wide spread death of Starfishes can effect ecosystem in the ocean. The same can happen at the Community Farm. The plants we saw were positively interacting with each other in ideal conditions. The Garden had all the great features to self-sustain. The combination of plants and insects indicates they are living in a symbiotic relationship. Because of the class learning, my mind was set as a citizen scientist with keen eyes to monitor and understand the phenomenon to compare and contrast the Community Farm with a marine ecosystem. What I took from this experience was Marine Biology and Farming is both interdisciplinary. There is no difference between land and ocean when it comes to an ecosystem; each requires balance to remain self-sustaining.

How are irrigation systems designed and developed?

How do irrigation systems work and what is the expense? 

How does a rain garden work and what is the expense to build?

How do we know what insects would work to eliminate other pests on certain plants?

Why does the Community Farm have almost no bugs on the plants?

We weigh the harvest after washing and register on the log

It was my dinner at home : )  Very healthy and tasty!