Volunteering at the Greenhouse: Tricycle Gardens

Today I started my first official volunteer day with Tricycle Gardens, a local non-profit whose vision is to create self-sustaining, organic gardens throughout Richmond. Founded in the winter of 2001 by a group of community and eco-conscious neighbors, Tricycle Gardens began as an abandoned-lot-turned-organic-garden and has since grown to 5 large and sustaining community gardens filtered throughout history city.


They offer weekly workshops and seminars (you just missed the cold frame workshop, where each participant learned to build their own frame from only $7 of pre-used and new materials) and they are launching a new service called "kitchen gardens" where volunteers (me included) will come to your backyard....We plan, prepare and plant you a garden and help maintain it until you get the hang of it. We are all working to create a greener more sustainable city, one garden at a time.




I'm beginning my tricycle garden education where sun meets seed + soil and where seedlings are born: The Greenhouse. The Greenhouse for Tricycle Gardens is located in Richmond' s Historic 262 acre Bryan Park located just north of the city. We have a varied assortment of cold weather crops almost ready to be sold (some, in the case of the lettuce, ready to be eaten): arugula, lettuce, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach.



My job was to mix some potting soil and plant two flats of lemon-lime and green bouquet basil. Easy-Peasy and done. Then i was able to snap some pics and watch Allison Mesnard feed the little darlings a fish emulsion cocktail and some root stimulator.



I was thus inspired to transplant my baby sugar snaps into 4 inch cow pots and I have stealthyly switched out my CFL in my desk lamp for a grow bulb. Unfortunately it is a rather jerry rigged endeavor and my pics do not do the process nor the plants justice. I will not taint the beautiul images of natures abundance in the Greenhouse with my paltry seedlings.