The Garden Project 2

GOAL
START
WHO

Design, build, and maintain a community food garden

Summary

In 2019, Húnaklúbburinn has been working on a learning based project called, the Garden Project. The aim of the Garden Project is to design, build, and maintain a community food garden. We believe that through hands-on learning we create connections to place and to nature. There is great value in gardens in a community for youth. For example, it helps transform a place into hands-on science activity while connecting with the earth and to each other. The Garden Project, holistically, is an experiment for the youth of Húnaklúbburinn to learn sustainable community development. The youth will learn step-by-step the tools that are needed in organizing, leading, and maintaining an environmental project. In addition, they will learn that projects such as the Garden Project not only impact their lives, but also the lives of others in the community. Together, we will learn the benefits of gardens while also learning how to teach others in a fun and creative way.

The Garden Project: Step 1

The ultimate goal of the Garden Project is long-term sustainability. It will take a variety of motivated stakeholders to help build a successful school garden. Step 1 entails effective organizing and creating a culture of shared leadership.

Agenda for the Garden Project

Develop a mission—How will the garden benefit the community?
- Goals and Objectives
Encourage and empower participants to make a decision together.
- Who will maintain the garden?
- How will this be sustainable?
- Who is interested in continuing with the Garden Project?
Develop an agreement.

First Start

We reused old glass containers to create an environment for a tiny garden.

The Garden Project: Step 2

This next step will take active coordination with the community and the Húnaklúbburinn youth in order to begin planning and designing. Initial research and community engagement started in 2018. “Step 2” will take this research together and begin bringing the garden to life.

Planning, Designing, and bringing the garden to life.

The Garden Project: Step 3

We will begin to draw out a plan for managing the Garden Project. In “Step 3” we will break it down into three phases. Phase 1: Mobilization and Communication. We will consider how to mobilize our team of gardeners and volunteers throughout the year. Phase 2: Planning time schedule. We will begin to build a garden schedule to reflect what we want to plant and when we can work in the garden. We hope to invite others to help in the garden. And, Phase 3: Sow, Harvest, Store, Serve, and Repeat. The fundamental aim of ecological literacy is to bring about change in our relationship with the world and to develop an understanding of our role in community development and environmental care.

Things are starting to grow!

Jóhann Thorarensen

Jóhann Thorarensen joined us at Skrúðvangur for Eldur í Húnaþingi on 25/07/2019 to share his experiences in starting an award winning edible garden initiative in Akureyri. His presentation was made possible through grant funding, The Icelandic Youth Fund Rannís. After the presentation, he visited our garden and gave us some great advice.

Garden Maintenance

Things started to grow so much we needed to trim some of the plants to keep them healthly.

Harvest Time

Finally, it's time to harvest the crop!

Soup anyone?

What do you do with so much food?

Mexíkósk kjúklingasúpa

Þessi uppskrift er fyrir 12 manns

10 Kjúklingabringur
2 rauð paprika
2 græn paprika
8 gulrætur
1 blaðlaukur
10 hvítlauksgeirar
2 laukur
2 grænt eða rautt chili
4 msk olía
3 dós saxaðir tómatar
4 teningar af kjúklingakrafti
6 tsk karrý
5 lítri vatn
2 peli rjómi
2-3 úr krukku af Heinz chili tómatsósu
300 g rjómaostur

Berið súpuna fram með sýrðum rjóma, rifnum osti og nachos flögum.

The Garden Project: Step 4

The youth group met for the final evaluation and discussed what they through about the Garden Project overall. We reflected on the project using 5 questions:

Comparing from the start of the project to the end, has my opinion about the project changed?
Was there anything about the project that surprised me?
What did I like about the project?
Did I learn something new?
Something more to add?

Step 5: Repeat

We came to the conclusion that gardening is fun and that we would like to continue doing it for next year.

Up next. Garden Project 2.0