Garden Projects

Plant Signs

We want to label the different garden crops with informational signs so that those exploring the garden can learn about different foods. Some students have done reseach on some crops and started designing signs, but there is more to do.

Research

• Make a list of common plants in the gardens
• Gather information on each one: growing conditions and time, culinary uses, history, fun facts, health benefits and nutrition facts, other uses, origin

Sign Making

• Make a template for the signs
• Find pictures of the different plants
• Decide which information is most important and interesting for each plant, how much information will fit
• Translate the information into Spanish
• Use an automated process, such as Excel macros, to uniformly make the signs

Metal Garden Signs

In order for the gardens to be successful, people need to know how to find them. In addition, if someone happens to stumble upon them, they should know that they are community gardens for SLCC.

• Improve existing designs for garden signs so they can be printed and placed by gardens on four SLCC Gardens
• This includes a set of signs for labeling the gardens and a set of wayfinding signs for finding the gardens

Garden Banner

We have a banner in the Redwood garden, but it is old and falling apart. We could use a new one, as well as ones for other gardens.

• Plan out what should go on the banners and how big they should be.
• Design the banners.
• Get the banners printed by Printing Services.

Other Graphic Design / Printing Tasks

There are a few smaller graphic design / signage projects.

• Better labels for the recycling, green waste, and trash bins at Redwood and South.
• Some "please close umbrella after use" signs for the garden tables.
• More eye-catching posters to advertise the garden that say something like “did you know that we have gardens where you can grow your own food?” with big food pictures.
• Print photos of people gardening, cooking, or eating and hang them in the greenhouse, garden, pantry, and Thayne Center.

Native Plants Landscaping

There is a lot of unutilized space in the garden. Previously, several “native” plants, grape and berry bushes, and two young fruit trees were planted around the perimeter of the garden. Unfortunately, these plants were not cared for and many of them died and/or were overtaken by weeds. We would like to try planting them again.

• Research what plants are native and would grow the best here, how to care for them, and how much to water them. It is vital that these plants are properly watered and cared for, especially when they are in their earliest stages.
• Find plants that we should buy.
• Physically plant the plants.

Gardening & Maintenance

This is the normal day-to-day maintenance of gardening and takes place from March through November

Winterization & Cleanup

• Pull up weeds around the garden
• Winterize plots
• Rake leaves, cover plots
• Remove trash from garden area

Growing Season

• Plant starts in the greenhouse in the late winter or early spring
• Transplant starts to pantry plots
• Plant additional seeds in pantry plots
• Plant native perimeter plants such as flowers, succulents (hens and chicks), and bushes (such as Gooseberries)
• Water perimeter plants
• Weed pantry plots and perimeter

Composting

In order to make composting a larger part of the garden and the campus as a whole, we need more physical infrastructure to handle everything, more people to mix and maintain the compost, signs and a guide expaining how comosting works and how to compost, and longer-term plans with campus facilities.

Signs

• How composting works in a scientific sense
• How to use the composters
• The composting process for our garden
• Cool infographics
• Food waste signs
• Why we should compost
• Tips and common problems
• Add info on composting to the gardens website

Physical Work

• Turn and mix compost
• Move compost between piles
• Add scraps to compost piles
• Add usable soil to plot boxes
• Comfrey

Planning

• Have campus facilities bring leaves to the garden for composting
• Have campus facilities collect compostable food scraps in the cafeteria for composting

Bin Construction

• We need add something on the fronts of the compost bins
• These must be easily removable and perhaps flip over the top
• Design and build

Hydroponics

Hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics are high-tech solutions for maximizing food production. We would like to create a system on campus to teach students about this new technology as well as to provide them with more fresh produce year-round via the food pantries

• Research different types and methods of soil-less indoor growing systems
• Design a growing system for either the greenhouse or indoors somewhere
• Order the necessary supplies to build the system. Note: TRIO has some supplies in storage that we can use
• Build the system
• Maintain the system
• Look into ways to power the system by renewable energy, especially if it's in the greenhouse

Event Planning

We would like to have more educational and fun events in the campus gardens. So many exciting workshops are possible, but they require coordination and planning to make happen.

Potential Events

• Canning Food
• Chocolate Making (USU)
• Bat Boxes
• How to Garden class
• Miller teach cooking classes
• Composting workshop
• Winterization / winter gardening: cover crop, mulch, garlic, onions, greens, root vegetables
• Harvest Party / Tomato Sandwich Party
• Open House
• Pest management, disease, what's wrong
• Free farmer's market, or charge money and use to fund gardens
• Kickoff Workshop, possibly with WCG
• Seed Collecting / Seed and plant swap party
• Growing/produce contest like Zucchini Palooza contests
• Master Gardners have hour requirements, can ask them to teach a workshop
• Plant your own tomatoes, pot and small seedling, bring home or plant in a plot here or pantry plot


Coordination

• Have professors teach workshops
• Have Wasatch Community Garden do a workshop at SLCC
• Have SLCC students attend WCG workshops, cross-promote, newsletters
• USU Extension Masster Gardeners
• "office hours"
• Health sciences
• Health/counseling nutrition, Jordan nutrition class/club, health sciences
• Butterflies (Daycare, STEM, Biology, Dream Center
• Have SLCCSA central region help plan and fund events

• Judy Fisher could get us a solar panel for the greenhouse
• Look through updated list of service-learning classes for more collaboration ideas. Be sure to contact these faculty early!

Other Ideas

• Monthly events based on the time of year

Website Improvements

The website was overhauled during the Fall 2018 Semester by Computer Science student's in Darren Saunders's class. It is much better than it used to be, but there are still changes that can be made to it.

• On our garden posters, we show four ways to get involved: grow, volunteer, lead, and learn. However, lead and learn are not shown on the website. We should add these to the homepage.
• Rather than having a bunch of tabs that link to a bunch of different pages, more and more websites are showing everything (or most things) on the homepage (think about the design of Facebook, Twitter and Gmail). The students started this process, but still have some things on a separate page when they don't need to be, particularly the photo gallery which people probably won't view on its own page.
• The new "Clubs and Departments" page showcases the many organizations that are involved in the garden, but does not say how they have contributed.
• In the SEO setting on Wix, it asks "what makes this page unique?" We should look up what to add here in order for more people to find out website on search engines.
• Wix offers some advice on how to design a great page.
• All four gardens are on Google Maps, but not Apple Maps or Bing Maps. Many iPhone users use Apple Maps and Bing Maps may gain traction with the new Windows Phone.

Marketing

In order to get more people involved in the gardens, we need to market them better. Email newsletters are one way to get the word out about what's going on in the gardens. Social media is another thing we could use more.

• Analyze current marketing strategy.
• See how we can better utilize our exisiting newsletters: Thayne Center and Bruin Pantry.
• Consider creating a garden newsletter and mailing list. We could even collaborate with the pantries to include recipes. There is a way to collect emails through the website.
• See how we can better utlize the Thayne Center's socia media accounts.
• See how we can better utlize the gardens Facebook page and website.
• Consider using other types of social media (Instagram, Twitter, etc.).
• Consider other marketing methods.

Alternative Gardening & Herb Spiral

Right now, neaely all of our gardening takes place within the garden plots or in other normal, conventional ways. However, there are many alternative gardening methods we can use to maximize food production, make use of empty space and excess materials, improve the aestetics of the garden, and inspire others.

• Come up with some ideas for different types of plots
• Design them
• Build them
• Plant them
• Some Alternative Gardening Ideas
• Herb Garden Guide

Garden Additions

There are many features that can be added to the garden. Most will require purchasing things, but some may be possible using excess materials from the garden such as the rocks and logs.

• Come up with ideas of addition or changes for the garden (seating, cubbies, storage, use for rocks and logs).
• Design them
• Build them

Grow Mushrooms in Logs

We have several tree logs in the garden, which could serve as an ideal medium for growing edible mushrooms. This would not only provide food for the pantry, but would also help teach people not only about growing mushrooms, but about fungi and mycology more generally.

• Research the types of mushrooms that are native to the SLC area.
• Research how to grow these mushrooms and how feasible it would be to do in our garden.
• Grow mushrooms in the logs.

New Logo

Our current logos (blue circle, white circle, square) are functional, but do not fully represent the gardens in the ways that a logo should. We could use a new design.

• Look up logo design guidelines.
• Design a better logo that represents SLCC and gardens better.
• Uses better colors, imagry, etc..

Plant Tracking

We are growing a lot of different plants. Some are edible, some help attract pollenators, and some are weeds. We are not tracking the results of these different plants, nor are we taking pictures to more easily identify them.

• For crops, we would like to see what does well, what had problems, what techniques worked best, and take pictures.
• For weeds, we would like to take inventory of common weeds and label images of them so that they can be more easily identified and removed in the future.

Winter Gardening

Most people see gardening as a summer activity, but it is also possible to grow crops in the winter with special care.

• Set up the greenhouse to keep plants warm enough to grow.
• Set up an irrigation/automatic mister system in the greenhouse.
• Use hoop houses and other techniques to protect outdoor crops from the cold air and snow.
• Plant crops grown by indigenous groups that can better withstand Utah’s climate (in the winter and summer).