Home Gardening and Food Security in Carlisle, Summer ’22-Fall ’22

Home Garden Manual Updated 2023

Desired outcomes associated with this project included:

1. Monitored increase of knowledge and understanding of home garden production in the Borough of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
2. Increased access to fresh produce through cost-efficient gardening techniques for Carlisle residents.
3. Sustained connections between students and the local community through community-based gardening projects and partnerships.

Indicators for measuring project impact included:

1. Collection of data through the topic-specific surveys (created by Dee Findlay ‘22 and Maeve Thistle ‘23) to track changes in food security, dietary diversity, and community-scale biodiversity over time.
2. Increase in the number of partnerships formed on the premise of establishing home garden initiatives.
3. A discussion amongst home gardeners to share their experiences of the summer-fall growing season.

Summary of Project Objectives and Outcomes in 2022

The Home Gardening Initiative in Carlisle identified three main objectives to further accomplish the desired project outcomes. The aims include for the summer-fall growing season included: Providing Technical Support to our Home Gardeners, Personal & Community Garden Maintenace, and Developing Local Partnerships.

Technical Support to Home Gardeners:

The Home Gardeners Initiative worked with 5 home gardeners, each with varying levels of experience with growing their own food and varying levels of limitations. For example, some of the gardeners were able to grow their garden in the ground, and some gardeners grew their food in about 5-gallon bucket containers. In the end, each gardener successfully harvested their crops.

Each gardener took surveys to record the baseline data of their biodiversity literacy, household dietary diversity and food security at the beginning of the season. At the end of the season, they were given the same surveys to monitor any changes in their responses.

There was the initial plan to develop a garden tour amongst the home gardeners so that they could meet each other, but unfortunately there were numerous challenges to make this possible. Instead, three gardeners gave a virtual tour of their garden. Watch the video below:

 

Personal & Community Garden Maintenance

Genesis planned and planted the Kaufman demonstration garden in June ‘22 to better support home gardeners by engaging in the process of weeding, pest identification and general garden maintenance. As a result, Genesis had an abundance of weekly produce that included: butternut squash, green onions, tomatoes, bell peppers beans and salad mix.

The Montogomery Garden and the D-Walk Herb Garden were maintained over the summer and fall. The vegetables and herbs were and are still available for the Dickinson community. The purpose of the community gardens is to further integrate gardening into the campus culture.

 

 

 

Photos from the Montgomery Garden

In November, the community gardens had been put to bed and seeded to cover crop using a mixture of rye and peas this year.

Developing Local Partnerships:

This summer, the Employment Skills Center partnered with the Home Gardening Initiative to take the beginners English Learning class field trip to the Kaufman demonstration garden. The students revived workbooks about gardening concepts that included (weeding, mulching, transplanting etc.) and other phrases related to sensation (colors, texture, sounds etc.) that are built on vocabulary learnt in previous classes.

Moving forward, the Home Gardening Initiative is developing and implementing a home gardening course in partnership with Project SHARE. Dickinson College Farm and student staff

Carlisle residents who are interested in participating in a weekly home gardening course would receive training and the supplies necessary for implementing and maintaining a home garden.