Youth Opportunities Unlimited Teens at City Rising Farm
Johnteze
Working at City rising Farm has been a terrific experience for me. Although it has been quite a challenge adjusting to the environment the staff and my peers are very friendly.
Come join the movement as we help keep our community clean and witness the beautiful plants, fruits and vegetables that City Rising Farm presents for the public. Danesha
07-12-13
On Friday Keisha and I built beds around the trees and put flowerpots we had planted around them for decoration. Then Keisha, Ms. Elle, and I weeded on the side of the shed. The boys, Johnteze, Gerald, and Alvis were stioll working on there trellis. They have been working on it for two days. Not us, the Gucci Girls have been done on our first day so they are no competition at all. Lol (Don’t forget Danesha we all worked on the Gucci Girl trellis. lol (Ms.Elle) 07-15-13 Today we watered and weeded. After lunch we watched a movie called “What’s On Your Plate”. It was hot so we spent a lot of time at the library. 07-16-13 This Tuesday we worked on potting plants and putting soil on Mr. Josh’s truck to go over to Cleveland UMADAOP to teach some other Y.O.U. kids how to make and plant a garden bed. We put newspaper, leaves, straw, alpaca manure, and topsoil in layers on the ground. We then showed the UMADAOP YO.U. kids how to plant the flowers. 07-18-13 Today we went to the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland. We experienced a new garden and had fun exploring the garden. Everybody loved the checker board tables and took time to sit there and talk. Then we found out more about the solar panel, how it charges cars and how they recycle rain water from the gutters on it. They built a gutter to make the rain water flow into these tanks called “Fat Boys” They had four tanks and used the rain collected to water their garden. After that we travelled to a place called the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. Keisha, Johnteze and I went deep into the woods, we left Gerald and Alvis. Inside the center we saw a snake and the snake skin that it grew out of. We also saw a turtle and the food that he ate. There we millions of chipmunks. Keisha got in a log at the center and while she was in the center Johnteze put a plastic frog on her leg. She was so scared and we all laughed. Ms. Sarah from the Nature Center took us out on a trail and told us about the cat tails that used to take over the marsh and about the grasses that were tough and could cut up your body and clothes. There were some little kids singing songs about the animals in the garden. They were so cute! Ms. Lara took us to another part of the Nature Center to see a field she had planted, it had milk weed, blacked eyed susans, and a bunch more things I had never heard about. We went inside a building at the Nature Center that was made of straw, clay, and sand like the oven at City Rising Farm only much bigger. We had lots of fun travelling and learning about other places around town! 07-19-13 We watered all the beds. Keisha and Johnteze kept wetting me, I was soaked and when I went across the street Alvis wet me up too, but it’s all good and gravy, Today was a super hot day. Then after that we harvested collards, squash, and cucumbers to take home. Alvis
We built a trellis and then put some twine on it to make it look nice and neat. Then we built some garden beds underneath the trellises so that when we start to grow plants they will lock o n to the trellises and grow straight up. We ate some strawberries from the garden…they were ripe and really sweet!
We weeded some empty beds and broke then down so use the top soil in a lasagna bed mix. We started a little late today because of the storms. When we did start we removed the wood forms from the slip benches that we made out of cement and rocks. They were still a little wet but shaped nicely like a cube. We also weeded the garden beds that we created, 07-11-13 We made collard green smoothies today. It was ok but I could still taste the grass in the smoothies. We made some fruit smoothies and they were sweet and good with the strawberries in it. We also made another trellis at the Diversity Garden and did some weeding so that garden would look good. 07-16-13 We had a visitor this morning. Ms. Gina Chamberlain. We gave her a tour around the garden and showed her all the plants we planted and the fruit and vegetables that we are growing in the garden. Today we went to another garden on 79th and Superior to help another Y.O.U. team learn how to make lasagna garden beds they way we do at City Rising Farm. We instructed them in how to make the beds by starting off with newspaper and card board to kill the weeds. We wet the paper and card board so they wouldn’t blow it away. Next we showed them to put some compost, straw, and topsoil in layers. Finally we helped them plant the butterfly garden and then water everything in. The plants needed lots of water because they were sitting in the sun when we made the garden beds and had started to dry out. 07-18-13 Today we went on a field trip to the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland. Mr. Tom Gibson came out and talked to us about the church and garden that they grew right outside the church. Mr. Gibson talked about the solar panel and he said that it provided electricity throughout the church and that people with electric cars could charge them up there. The Church also has gutters hooked up to the solar panels and when it rains the water goes through the gutters and into the 630 gallon water tanks. They have four water tanks. Mr. Gibson talked about the history of the church and all the people that donated money and time to the church to make the garden noticeable. After we left the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland we went to the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. There were all types of animals out there. When you go into the woods you don’t know what you might see. |
Enjoying Harold the snake we found for a few minutes before we released him back into the wilds of City Rising Farm!
Alpaca manure is magic in the garden!
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Gerald
On my first day on the job heat burning on my skin after searching for the work site on the farm I met our supervisor Ms. Elle and on that farm the plants and trees were tall and full of berries. There were plants and beautiful flowers. After looking around I was introduced to my co-workers Alvis and Michael and our other supervisor Leah.
I then got to work planting tomatoes, collard greens, cabbage, flowers and lots of other stuff. Even though I was mad because of my shoes getting messed up I was cool because I met some pretty cool people and I learned new things! Michael
At City Rising Farm we planted sweet potatoes and lettuce. After working we are able to go to the Hough Library for the lunch program. We also go to the library for part of the day where we work on our stories for the website. I want to get out of this how to work a real job. I want to be able to get all of the knowledge there is of gardening from my job this summer.
LaKeisha
06-29-13
Today we had two visitors, Mr. Dylan and Mr. Darius from Boston. I learned that they are from the “Great Fresh Truck Stop” and they ride bikes around the country to raise funds for a mobile market. Danesha and I showed Mr. Darius and Mr. Dylan around the Blaine Avenue Community Garden and the Diversity Garden. We also showed them how to make a quick garden bed using the sheet mulching and lasagna method. After we made the bed we had them plant it with radish, peppers, herbs, squash and beets in two other beds. We had so much fun today! Ms/ Robinson made some good fish, some hot dogs and corn on the cob. We also had a spring salad, cole slaw and potato salad. I had a good conversation with Mr. Dylan and Mr. Darius. It was fun watching Johnteze, Alvis, Gerald and Michael build the slip form bench. I think that everyone enjoyed this day that we spent together. 07-01-13 Today we worked with Mr. Josh in the morning because Ms. Elle was at a meeting. Mr. Josh, Johnteze, Michael and Alvis continued to build the slip form bench. Danesha, Leah and I broke down beds and weeded. At 11:30a.m. we went to lunch at the Hough Library. When we came back we moved that plants that were on the side of the shed to the back and then took all of the empty flats and cell packs that were able to be reused to the back and organized them. We also planted a couple of plants in some pots. Today went by pretty fast. 07-02-13 On Tuesday we started our morning off with some weeding. Daneasha and Ms. Elle went over to Mr. Butch’s house to cut down some of his bushes. Mr. Butch is a neighbor and he helps out at the Blaine Avenue Community Garden sometimes so we decided to do him a favor and help him out with his front yard while Leah, Johnteze, Michael, Gerald and I weeded the children’s garden. When Danesha and Ms. Elle came back we added some more compost, alpaca manure and top soil to the front bed. We then planted cabbage, corn, pak choi and yellow squash there. There were some tough weeds in those beds too. They were really deep in the ground. I was introduced to this plant called thistle. It has thorns on it and you have to be very careful when walking around it. It is a weed but we left one in to grow because the flowers are pretty. Then we went to the Diversity Garden and cleared out the weeds and grass by the fence and rearranged the stones in one of the beds. 07-03-13 Today we started work on building a trellis for beans. Danesha, Leah and I worked on one trellis panel and Ms. Elle, Johnteze, Alvis and Gerald worked on the other. We also broke down the beds over by the fence and weeded some beds as well. It started raining really bad so we had to stop what we were doing. It was a good thing is was then end of the day for us anyway. 07-09-13 Today was our first day back at work from a vacation. It started off by us walking around to see the changes in the garden. The herbs and watermelon radish that Mr. Dylan and Mr. Darius from The Fresh Truck Stop had started to grow. We also noticed a couple of strawberries had come up and they were ready to eat. Each of us was able to taste a strawberry. They were delicious and sweet! The corn, cucumbers and broccoli are starting to grow as well. We finished making the trellis for the beans and made three beds under them. We rearranged the trellis so we could have plenty of room to walk around it. Finally we refreshed some baby pool beds with alpaca manure and top soil so we could transplant some fruit, vegetable and herbs into them. |