Day 6 – A Sunny Day in Buras for Gardening
On March 22, 2023, we traveled about two hours southeast to the town of Buras to install a community garden on the property belonging to Carol and his family. This project had partnered with him in the past but the previous gardens that were installed had failed due to high saturation of water in the soil from storms. The soil in this area is very clay heavy which can compact tightly and make it difficult for plants to grow roots in it so they tend to fail. It can be difficult to work with but luckily Carol had tilled the ground prior to our arrival and we were ready to plant! Christian, our botanist student from Oregon State, led the charge, showing us how to loosen the root ball of each of our vegetable and herb starts so that the plant knows it has more area to grow out its roots and establish itself in the ground. He directed us where in the field to plant certain plants based on the sunlight it would receive and the amount of space the adult plant would take up. The chosen vegetables were: bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, corn, basil, thyme, cilantro, and orange trees. We got them in the ground and added fertilizer to help give them a boost. It was a great team effort on such a nice day and I hope we get some updates to see how they do, providing much needed healthy foods to the surrounding community.
