GANG and IU SPEA Project - Weekly Blog Update

This spring semester 2010, an Indiana University undergraduate class of 35 students is learning how to design and construct a state-of-the-art compost system for the GANA garden. This class, “E400 Environmental Sustainability,” has been created by Melissa Clark, a lecturer at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Various members of this class have been assigned to write a blog. This week's post(s) follow.

From: Brodie Burgess
Subject: Weekly Blog Entry

Hello and welcome to the Blog Group’s update on the Green Acres Neighborhood Association Garden project for Indiana University’s Environmental Sustainability course. As the report draws near, each group is working hard to complete their chapter of the report.

The Bloomington Neighborhoods and Initiatives group has made some progress in finding city community gardens that are involved in composting. The Renaissance Farm and Permaculture Center uses compost and grows and sells organic products to educate people on the importance of sustainability and encourages them to buy these organic products to reduce waste and save natural resources. SPROUTS (Students Producing Organics Under the Sun) garden, a student organic group at Indiana University is trying to educate people about environmental sustainability through gardening by minimizing and reusing wastes. The Strangers Hill Organic Farm is a farm business specializing in Certified Organic products. They use a lot of compost and donate plant beds to other places- Farmer's market, Bloomingfoods, Hoosier Hills Food Bank etc. The Hoosier Hills Food Bank has a plot which was donated by the Strangers Hill Organic Farm. Hoosier Hills Food Bank gets compost from waste materials that they do not need and also passes crates to farmers at the Farmers Market for farmers to dispose any wastes, unused and unwanted products. In addition, the Bloomington Community Orchard will be planted in Winslow Woods Park. The community is very interested in growing organic fruits and using compost. They haven’t started planting yet and will be having their first meeting on April 12th. It aims at getting people to work together to grow food and the harvest will be available to the whole community.

The budget group is revisiting the groups they have asked support from and are in the process of nailing down the exact amount they need donated. In addition to that, Bloomingfoods has offered some physical donations, such as supplies.

The Compost Design group has received the official pick for the composting bins, the three-barrel system. In addition to this, the group has made some final adjustments for their portion of the final report.

The Newsletter Group is working hard to complete the newsletter, which is nearing completion, they are finishing up sections on GANA, general permaculture, urban gardening techniques, and composting. They will be finishing up the section on the three-barrel system of composting soon.

This concludes the Blog Groups update on the GANA Report progress. You can look forward to another update next week, and pretty soon after we will have the final report edited and done for your reading pleasure.