Environmental Attaction

Alex Bjornsson

McKinley Elementary School Garden. 

I wasn't sure what to expect working at a school garden, other than that we'd be working to prepare some areas for future plantings. I found that we'd be working with kids from the school, whose classroom was connected to one of the gardens, other students from a nearby high school, and volunteers working with the Philadelphia Orchard Project.

The garden had some previous work done a week or two before, as some plants were already starting to grow around the small area, and our job was to put down a cardboard boxes, compost, and mulch.

I was surprised at how hard the kids were working and eager they were to get the work done. A lot of them seemed to really want to take charge and  were excited to be working with everyone involved. Some of the kids during the compost and mulch piling came up with little songs to keep themselves entertained during the digging and filling of buckets.

It was inspiring to see that the kids have a classroom next to the garden that they're learning about, that they are taking the time to learn about their environment at a young age, and they are working  hard to learn more about how to take care of their community.

Mary Chase

Stewardship Research Paper

Compost This Paper

                  Good soil plays a very crucial role in growing plants in the city; especially because of the issues that come with urban soil, the use of compost and mulch helps to produce healthier growth.  Compost strengthens soil and helps protect plants from a lot of the challenges they face in the city (Composting At Home). Not only is compost a good resource for urban growth, but it could help alleviate the rate of consumption in the US which is not only through the roof, but much of the waste we produce could easily be put to some use.  While recycling initiatives have become more popular in the past decades, there is still a lot of room for progress.  Although not producing and consuming at such a high rate to begin with would be the best way to change, if we are to continue how we are going, the least we can do is to find a better way of managing that which we create.

                The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in the US we recycled about 65 million pounds of waste in 2010 and composted 20 million pounds (Municipal Solid Waste in the United States).   Considering that in 1980 we recycled 9.6% of trash and now we are at 34.1% (Municipal Solid Waste), the US has clearly made some big steps in the right direction.  Although this is a significant achievement and shows progress, composting still does not have the same following that general material recycling has.  Out of the waste that did not make it into recycling plants or compost piles in 2010 wood, yard trimmings, and foods scraps made up 33.7% of that material (Municipal Solid Waste).  Although perhaps not all of it could have been composted, this supply of organic material not currently being accessed could be used in a more beneficial way.

                Compost is not as difficult of a process as it may be perceived.  Many websites including the EPA’s site offer guidelines for starting and sustaining one’s own compost pile at home, and it is surprisingly simple work.  The building blocks of composting starts with three raw materials: browns, greens, and water (Composting At Home).  These two categories of browns and greens define the difference between dried and damp materials: browns could include paper and leaves while greens are composed more of yard clippings and food (How to Compost).  These materials are then combined in a specific way: they are placed in layers of alternating brown/green to balance carbon and nitrogen (Composting At Home).  The pile is then tended by turning it regularly (weekly or bi-weekly), watering, mixing, and being watched with a careful eye (How to Compost).  This process can be done inside or outside, but even if its potential is not maximized, any composting is better than no composting.

The product of this work is compost that will help urban gardens specifically in several ways and can be a way of naturally supplementing urban soil.  Urban soil tends to have unbalanced pH because of pollution, but compost can neutralize it and make for healthier plants (The Benefits of Using Compost).   The good bacteria and other organisms that occupy compost for its nutrient levels (The Benefits of Using Compost) is also a refreshingly diverse change from regular city soil.  Compost is thicker because of its inherent nature, so it is also able to retain water (The Benefits of Using Compost).  Cities tend to have more problems with water runoff because of a higher concentration of impervious surfaces, so in this way compost is especially effective at changing this problem in the urban environment.

There is readily available information to help guide the average person through the process of composting, whether on their own or participating in a larger project.  Although not everyone may have the ability to have their own garden, patch, or plants, a lot of community stewardship organizations can also use the compost.  Many community gardens make their own compost piles and other organizations associated with planting or maintaining the urban environment could use rich, healthy compost as well.  So, if people have food scraps and other organic material which they plan on throwing away they can contribute not only to any personal growing they might do, but could contribute to a bigger project.

It is difficult to do this large-scale collection of organic material in cities because composting on a municipal scale presents big challenges (Organics in NYC’s Residential Waste Stream).  As an example, New York has several reasons why it does not collect most of its residents’ waste collections including a very high density, the cost of collecting separated organic material, and such logistical problems (Organics in NYC’s Residential Waste Stream).  Philadelphia has a few private services that do curbside compost collection such as Philly Compost.  However, because of the urban obstacles mentioned, it would be easier on cities if people take personal initiative to compost and use that rich, beneficial material in ways that are productive and help improve the urban environment.  This gets to the very heart of the concept of stewardship.  Composting is something that is fairly easy to do—the materials that it requires are already at hand (things we would normally throw away).  Its results even on a small scale can be significantly beneficial to the urban ecosystem in helping plants to grow much better, reducing runoff, and neutralizing soil pH.   Composting is an all-around great idea, and it raises a personal sense of responsibility to one’s environment in an immediate but not intrusive way: this process can teach us all how to do our own small duty.

Bibliography:

"Composting At Home." US EPA. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 01               May 2013. <http://www2.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home>.

Mazzoni, Mary. "The Benefits of Using Compost in Your Garden." Earth911. Earth911 Inc, 13 Mar. 2013.                 Web. 01 May 2013. <http://earth911.com/news/2013/03/13/garden-compost-benefits/>.

"Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the United States: Facts and Figures." US EPA. United States   Environmental Protection Agency, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 May 2013.            <http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm>.

"Organics in NYC's Residential Waste Stream." NYC WasteLess. NYC Department of Sanitation, n.d. Web.              01 May 2013. <http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/edu.shtml>.

Mary Chase: Project Log and Map

Map locations:

Green= Oak Lane Tree Tenders area

Red= McKinley Elementary School

Blue= Temple Community Garden

Mary Chase

When: 04/13/13 10am-2pm

Where: Bartram’s Garden (West Philly)

  For this stewardship event, I went to Bartram’s Garden in West Philly to help with a Philadelphia Orchard Project work day.  On my way to the given address I ran into some girls from Temple’s Students for Environmental Action who were also participating in the event who helped me find the place.  The site where we worked I would have had a hard time finding without their help as it was set far into the park.

(scenic view of the Philly skyline from Bartram’s Garden— I didn’t know there was anywhere in city limits that looked like this!)

The first thing that we started to do was pulling weeds from the ring surrounding a large dogwood tree so that mulch could be spread and other things planted around it.  Not all of this “weeding” was necessarily weeds though; a lot of what we were pulling out was grass which would also interfere with the ability of the plants to grow because the roots could obstruct their growth.  There was a decent amount of clover also.  It proved pretty difficult to get the weeds and grass out because we had to dig out the roots with troughs.  The roots couldn’t be left behind because that could allow them to grow back in the area we had just cleared.  While we worked there were three things we came across often: roots, worms, and glass.  The worms I was told are very good for the soil because they loosen it.  The abundance of broken glass was alarming: problematic soil had been an issue at the Temple Community Garden as well, but actually seeing broken glass in an orchard was startling.

(other volunteers standing around the large dogwood in the center of the ring we weeded, mulched, and planted in)

The next thing we did was break into groups of two to plant trees.  The organizer of the event gave us a brief lesson on planting these trees.  One must first dig a sufficient tree pit that will fit all of the roots (which were slightly girdled from being in containers).  The pits needed to be deep enough so that the roots will grow properly but shallow enough that the root flare was still exposed.  When piling the dirt back into the pit, one also must pile it up on the downhill side since we were planting our trees on a significantly sloped grade.  This is to better collect water.  This particular orchard is focused on native fruit trees and ornamentals such as the dogwoods.

My partner and I got a paw paw tree to plant—a native fruit tree.  I had to ask one of the organizers what a paw paw tree was, since I had never heard of this kind of tree before and he explained that it was a fruit with a custard-like consistency inside.  This sounds delicious and I am now determined to try some.  One problem that we encountered was an abundance of a vine-like plant growing across the field in the area that we planted our tree: an organizer explained that this was an invasive species called akebia which threatens the Philadelphia area, and although it hadn’t grown leaves yet since it was early in the season, we should cut them back from around our tree and they would later try eradication methods.  The fence that we put around our baby tree serves against another common predator in the area: hungry deer. 

Akebia is a common enough problem in Philadelphia, and as the city website shows (http://www.phila.gov/ParksandRecreation/environment/forestry/Pages/Invasives.aspx#page=1&itemId=19edb4d3-307f-4fcb-87f1-955ee0022001) cutting it back is a way of staving it off, though in the longer term it requires more work than we had time to do during our work day.

(our newly planted pawpaw!)

(what a pawpaw fruit looks like inside http://girlinanapron.blogspot.com/2011/09/god-bless-paw-paw-patch.html)

After a brief lunch break we all began planting smaller plants around the large tree.  There were a variety of these small plants but I mostly remember putting in chives.  When planting these in the ring we needed to dig deeper than the mulch that had been laid down, so that the roots were touching the soil and could better establish the plants.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this set up of plants in a ring around a larger tree is an example of the Philadelphia Orchard Project’s standard method of creating orchards with multiple layers.  This method in contrast with the way a lot of farming is done in the US (with vast monocultures) shows a more responsible food production process.

Mary Chase

When: 04/06/13 11am-2pm

Where: Temple Community Garden and Sonia Sanchez Garden

  My stewardship event at the Temple Community Garden started by coming to the garden on Norris and Broad where there was a pretty big group there for the work day.  My first task wasn’t exactly the most engrossing: I was nailing signs that marked off beds as either private or public.  This task was necessary, but not exactly what I was expecting.  Community gardens such as this can serve both community needs and individual needs, so having beds allocated for personal use, communal use, and use by the Penrose program is important so that it can continue to serve these purposes of bringing the community together, allowing personal activity, and educating youth.  I also had a good discussion with a TCG member while I was hammering about why the garden uses raised beds rather than planting directly in the dirt.  They explained that the soil in urban areas is often not the best for growing plants because of potential factors like pollution, compaction, and a lacking of necessary nutrients. We have covered similar topics to this in class, especially relating to the composition of urban soil which suffers because of the high density in the city.

After I was done with hammering duty, I began watering the beds.  Since it was a sunny day the beds were looking a little dry.  I thought that watering would be a simple task, but it turns out I was wrong.  When I started I was only hosing down plants that I saw growing, but a member of TCG came up and informed me that I needed to make sure to get the whole bed wet, and to water all of the beds, even those which seemed to be empty. The beds that appeared to be empty actually had seeds in them which also require water to grow.  The beds with plants already visibly growing need to be watered all over because the roots stretch out far and will soak up all of the water from the soil eventually.  I also learned that when watering garden beds to wait until the water begins to pool, then move on to the next bed.

After watering for a while, people began to move over to the flower garden at the Sonia Sanchez Garden on Carlisle St.  The garden here is smaller and simpler, but it is where Temple Community Garden collaborates with a women’s shelter in growing more decorative plants.  I applied what I learned about watering over at the main garden and made sure to water all around the daffodils being planted.  The water here came from a rain barrel rather than the hose in the main garden; it was interesting to see such a storm water management practice in use in the city up close.  The barrel held a lot more than I was expecting it to: we watered all of the flowers in the garden without running out.  One thing that I had wondered about storm water barrels was to what extent they would collect enough to make a difference, but I saw how one barrel can go a long way when used in a small garden.

There was a rose bush in the Sonia Sanchez Garden which also needed to be trimmed.  Pruning the rose bush felt a little bit uncomfortable for me because I had never done anything like that before and cutting branches off of a healthy bush felt incredibly counter-intuitive.  However, a TCG member and fellow classmate reassured me that as long as it is done in a moderate way trimming would not hurt the bush. Taking the pruned branches over to the compost pile in the main garden alleviated my guilt about this activity too because I at least knew that the branches would be put to good reuse—recycled into new soil for the garden.  Back in the main garden me and my partner made a mistake of putting the branches in the wrong pile: we put them in the pile which had already been turned over, but there is a separation.  While I was taking these branches over to the compost a question that has been bothering me came back: why don’t more people do this? Why don’t I do this at home?  Composting is relatively easy and it produces great, nutrient-rich soil to grow plants with rather than chemical fertilizers.  This last thought about composting was what stuck with me leaving the work day: every day we throw away material that would be perfectly good for a compost pile. Later I found an online resource about composting made by the EPA:

http://www2.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home

Abi Reimold

Stewardship Essay

  Urban Beekeeping

              While people and plants are embraced in an urban setting, wild animals are usually considered as pests. Stray cats, mice and rats, and insects are not welcomed by many urban dwellers. However, one insect, the honeybee, is crucial to not every environment, and must be embraced by the city. The Philadelphia Beekeeper’s guild has been working over the past three years to change how people think about bees, and provide support for those who wish to keep bees themselves. Many of the beekeepers started in response to CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. As bees began to disappear, some people realized how crucial they are to our ecosystems and survival, and took it upon themselves to raise bees themselves.

            Like anything else, urban beekeeping has its challenges and its rewards. “The main challengers are learning how to do it from people who have done it,” explained Suzanne Matlock, the president of The Guild. Most beekeepers live in the country and are far from Philadelphia, so Philadelphians must learn from one another. Most of the beekeepers in Philly, according to Matlock, have been keeping bees less than eight years.

            Another challenge The Guild faces is an environment that’s not necessarily welcome to bees. “Some people have a small space, or they’re afraid to make their neighbors angry,” Matlock said. Some of The Guild’s suburban neighbors, the Montgomery County Beekeeping Guild, were faced with this problem when a woman began to protest beekeeping in her township of Plymouth.

“She argued that school children walk by this on their way home from school, that the bees are near her children’s swing set, that her son is asthmatic…” Matlock rolls her eyes while describing the woman’s argument. “And the legislators see, there is an unhappy voter and we need to make that voter happy. She made flyers and distributed them. She must have had a lot of free time on her hands. The danger with this is if a beekeeping ban is passed in one place, its easy for beekeeping to be banned elsewhere. Pennsylvania relies on beekeeping for its economy. We produce apples in Pennsylvania. We need bees for our economy.”

Other urban bee problems include water sources. If bees are not provided with enough water, they will go to swimming pools or fountains to drink, which can be a pest to the public.

Urban beekeeping also has its advantages. According to an article from Newsworks, what urban bees feed from makes them heartier than many country bees. Bees in more agricultural areas generally of off monoculture. The plants they feed off often stop producing nectar in the later summer months. With less food, the bees are more susceptible to malnutrition and CCD. Because urban bees have a variety of food sources, they have more plants accessible to them in the late summer and can stay healthier for longer.

Monoculture also often tends to use a lot of pesticides and herbicide. These chemicals are hard on bees, and prevent the potential growth of the hive. Since unban bees often feed from plants which have fewer chemicals used, they are healthier and produce larger amounts of better tasting honey, according to Newsworks. Additionally, eating local honey is proved to help with seasonal allergies.

            According to an interview on Radio Times, people hoping to keep bees in the city need to follow just a few steps. General care for bees requires a four-hour commitment per month. Perspective bee keepers should read about bees, find a bee mentor or support group, and buy a beehive and a starter kit, a total price of about $200. They will receive about 3 pounds of bees to start with, and be sure to feed their bees during the winter.

  Sources

  Bobb, Jim. “The buzz on beekeeping as a hobby.” Radio Times. WHYY. June

  12, 2012.

  Matlock, Suzanne. Interview. 28 April 2013.

    Moselle, Aaron. “Urban Honey Venture Swarms Northeast Philadelphia.”

  Newsworks. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/health-

Alex Bjornsson

On Saturday March 30th, 2013, I was lucky enough to get the chance to help clean up a garden which happened to be very close to where my girlfriend lives, that I drive by all the time on my way to visit. Before the experience I never really noticed the garden or gave it any of my attention, even though it was always at an intersection I frequently stopped at.

I got there a bit early, as the weather wasn't too bad and I wanted to see what I was getting into before anyone else got there. The whole area was infested with dried out ivy sprawling all around the fence, trash was obviously thrown over the fence as a community trash can, and the garden boxes were all empty or had dying plants. Before I could even make any first impressions I got to meet the talk to the woman who was taking control of the garden for the day and allowing us to work, and it was absolutely inspiring that she took the time out to help keep the garden in order.

We soon got everyone together and everyone took their positions on whatever screamed out to them. We had a lot of people, which was lucky, and we had several people on each job. I took up the part of cleaning up the fences by clearing up the dried out ivy and transferring it to the compost heap at the back of the garden.

The thing that really stuck out to me were the people looking through the fence once the ivy had been cleared and were whispering, talking to one another, smiling, and pointing at the people working in the garden as they walked on by. It was nice to see that people were noticing what was going on and might even possibly take a part in the future welfare of the garden.

ABI REIMOLD:

I spent my last two stewardship hours this morning at Tree House Books, only two blocks from Temple’s campus. This was the hardest of all the stewardship because it was the most boring for me. Unlike the tree planting, where we were moving around and doing different tasks, it was hard work under the sun that was the same. We had to clear weeds out of some land so that the kids who come to Treehouse could plant flower beds along the lot. We just pulled out weeds and threw away rocks.

ABI REIMOLD:

On Saturday I volunteered with the Philadelphia Beekeepers’ guild. I was really curious about urban beekeeping, so I went to their website to contact someone from the group for my essay and saw that they were having an event and needed volunteers for Saturday so I signed up.

The guild was running a information table as part of the science festival held at Bartram’s garden. I went at 10 and helped Suzane, the president, set up the table. When Suzanne travels, she collects honey from everywhere that she goes, so we put out honeys from down south and out west and even from Mexico. We put little signs that said where the honeys were from or what flowers they came from. My favorite ones were the cactus flowers, which was a spicy flavored honey, and the Queen Anne’s honey, which tasted like caramel. I didn’t know honeys could taste so many different ways!

Suzanne told me a few basics about bees and then she said “I’ll be right back,” and disapeared for what felt like half an hour. Families started going by and asking me questions about bees since I was standing at the table. It was kind of stressful and uncomfortable-- these people are looking at me like some kind of bee authority but I’m just as new to this as they are! I tried my best to answer their questions and finally Suzanne came back and the real expert took care of the harder questions.

The Guild is awesome for the community because it’s a support group for people who want to start a hive but don’t know how to. The Guild has all the resources a person who is thinking about keeping bees needs to get off the ground. Bees are obviously important because they are crucial to ecosystems, so the work that The Guild does is really awesome.

Suzanne told me about one community of beekeepers in Plymouth that faced adversity when a woman started a campaign against beekeeping. She claimed that bees injure children and went around raising a hoopla to ban bees in the area. Beekeepers in Plymouth banded with other local beekeeping guilds to try to stop this.

Overall I’m really glad I got to go. This is what I was most interested in and am writing my paper about. I was really surprised as to how chill it was. Beekeeping is obviously a commitment, but it’s not the hugest commitment. It’s an awesome way to support to ecosystem of your neighborhood. Once I get settled down more in life, I would love to have a hive.

February 20th, 2013

2:05 - 2:20

Diamond and Park Corner.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Parking Lot

February 23rd 1:00 - 1:15

I watched for birds on February 17th from 3:04-4:04 PM. I sat on my stoop on Franklin + Poplar and watched the three trees in front of my apartment (and the skies) for birds. I saw:

3 - Sparrow (They always poop on my car)

1 - Bluejay

5 - Sparrow

1 - sparrow

1 - Woodpecker (YAY)

Approx. 25 - Starling (Flock)

2 - Sparrow