Written by Angela Goebel | 29 June 2010

Sunday was Pride Day in San Francisco. We took pride in the farm by cleaning and greening.

Zen Center dropped off their flowers from the Gay Pride Parade for our compost pile.  I helped chop up hemlock and hollyhock with Dave, Brett, Vanessa and a Net Impact volunteer. “I wish we had some better pruners,” Vanessa said. The stems were thick and long, and we were snipping more than the recommended pinky lengths of plant.

“I should get a millionaire to donate some. Or, a wood chipper,” Brett commented.

“Really?!” Vanessa said, excited by the thought of more shiny Swiss pruners like the pair Brett sported. And a wood chipper? Brett’s friend must be a millionaire…

 

“No, I’m just dreaming,” Brett sighed. Well, I thought, we couldn’t stand around chatting if we had a wood chipper. It would be too loud.

Later on, a volunteer asked, “What are you up to?”

“We’re just doing the most awesome project!” Taylor exclaimed. Sunday was his second volunteer day on the farm. We were transporting loose pieces of cardboard back to a corral made of wood pallets.

 

“I love getting outside and doing some manual labor,” Tayler told me as we shucked tubes leftover from the Cardboard Dueling Match into a wheelbarrow.

Back near the Research Center where we were storing the loose cardboard, volunteers were expanding the kitchen garden by making two new raised beds. “By piling the mulch three feet high,” Jay said, “There will be three micro climates for different plants to grow in. Morning sun, an even spread, and afternoon sun. Cilantro, for example, prefers afternoon sun.”

I pitched in to enhance the existing beds. I was amazed with the results of a simple stone pathway filled with sand and the backward bending branches that trimmed it.

Before I left, I sat down to watch Alex enlarge her drawing of fava in purple and mint colored paint. Her painting perfectly demonstrated the meaning of site beautification. It’s about making the site pleasing to the eye, inviting the community to walk in and take a peek at the projects we are working on. It also demonstrates our intention to the Hayes Valley neighborhood to turn the site around full circle.

Photos by Zoey Kroll, June 27, 2010