The Abbot Phillips Community Garden
2012 Season Wrap-Up
The Abbot Phillips Community Garden enjoyed another very bountiful season in 2012. Now in its second year, the community garden was funded by an Abbot grant and first planted in the spring of 2011. French instructor Elizabeth Poland supervised the creation of the 25’ X 55’ garden, including the construction of an 8 foot deer fence, raised beds, and the organization of numerous “garden” parties. Two sustainabilty interns (Jamison Poland ’12 and Nicholas Poland ’09) worked in the garden during the summer of 2011, weeding, grooming the beds, and harvesting pounds of organic produce. It was a grand success.
During the the summer of 2012, Dan Krichmar ’12, worked as a garden intern and blogged about his experiences taking care of an organic garden. His blog was published on the PA website under the sustainablity tab. Dan learned a lot about organic farming and the joy of growing and eating local produce. Throughout the 2012 growing season, all 225 pounds of the produce harvested was donated to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Lowell, MA. This food bank distributes food to over 90 shelters and community kitchens in the greater Merrimack Valley.
PA’s community service group, PRAXIS, worked in the garden this fall. Under the direction of Sarah Coghlan, students finished harvesting, delivered produce to the food bank, cleaned out the beds for next season, and weeded the blueberry patch adjacent to the garden. We hope to have both PRAXIS students as well students in SCIE-420 (Environmental Science: Food, Agriculture, and the Future) help plan and plant the garden next spring. There will most likely be another intern working in the garden during the summer of 2013. Contact Ms. Poland if you are interested in helping out!
The Abbot Phillips Community Garden, located near Isham Health Center and behind Isham Field, is just about to begin its next bountiful season. At the request of students eager to have a campus garden, a blueberry patch was planted in 2009 with generous funding from Joe Tattlebaum ’78. Mentored by Keith Robinson, Instructor in Biology, the garden crew has included students doing work duty, Community Service and studying in the Food and Agriculture course.
In the spring of 2011 and funded by the Abbot Academy Association, Libby Poland, Instructor in French, led the effort to expand the garden significantly with a 25' X 55' organic vegetable garden. All produce from the vegetable garden in 2012 including potatoes, tomatoes, squash, onions, brussels sprouts, lettuce and herbs, will be donated to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank located in Lowell, MA. Dan Krichmar '12 is this summer’s Garden Intern and you can read Farmer Dan’s blog.
Please contact Libby Poland at epoland@andover.edu for more information or to volunteer to work in the garden.
Some of this year's summer harvest.
