Community Garden!

Nova shows us his squash

Well, there have been some pretty exciting developments at the Growcology Learning Garden. Our first family plot is up and running, with our friend Twelve and his adorable children coming by and planting their tomatoes, squash, carrots, and other veggies this past weekend.

Twelve and his kids get plantin'

We've also been fortunate to have a soil scientist and landscape designer working with us. We met Sean Roulan at Oscar Clarke's house at the UCR botanic gardens, far from Sean's home on the coast of Massachusetts. He has been helping us in the garden for the past few weeks, sharing his knowledge about propagation and site design and getting dirt under his fingernails. We've been so blessed here at Growcology to have so many wonderful volunteers, our projects are really gaining momentum.

Sean spreads fresh compost in the herb garden

Now seems like a good time to introduce the Growcology team. We've written about some of our friends and volunteers, but I don't think we've written about our core founders. Here is me:

My nickname on the farm is the PoopSmythe. Can you guess why?

I'm Nick, the Chief Composting Officer for Growcology. My focus around the garden is making sure all the 'waste' stays put and the nutrients continue to cycle through our ecosystem (instead of sending them to the dump). I've been writing most of the posts on our blog so far, but hopefully the rest of the crew will be contributing their words in the coming weeks and months. My background is in Disaster Relief and food distribution. These days I'm trying to get as many people into gardening as possible, for lots of reasons.

Another one of our founders is Chief Money Officer and secretary Sarah.

Sarah has been designing websites for years, and we're lucky to have her attention to detail and impeccable editing skills. She's also a graphic artist and fire performer, and you can spot her in the garden by her fiery orange hair. She's also an excellent chef, and makes sure that all the delicious pot-herbs in the garden make it into our bellies.

Our Chief Buildin' Officer and resident carpenter and percussionist is Spencer.

Spencer fashions a fence around the community garden

Spencer spent many of the formative years of his life remodeling and building homes with his dad, a general contractor from Alabama. He's also a sound engineer, as well as an avid gardener and drummer. He and Sarah recently relocated from downtown LA to our garden in Riverside so they can stay on top of all the food we've got growing.

Our last founder, but certainly not least, is Chief Inspiration Officer Bianca.

Here Bianca chomps down on a stalk of Swiss Chard thats taller than she is!

When Bianca isn't chasing the chickens down so that she can hug them, you can find her tending the seedlings or pruning the orchard. She comes from a family of farmers and herbalists in New Mexico, and has studied and grown Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Native American herbs. She also is the founder of an inspirational media company, Words for the Many, and organizes motivational speaking engagements and backcountry retreats.

So thats our Growcology crew! We're few, but passionate, and we're lucky to have dozens of amazing volunteers helping us out. We've already profiled a few of them, and we'll continue to as the food keeps growing and experts and newbies find their way to our farm. We hope to see you there soon...