Goff Middle School
Organic Garden
Three Purposes
to make students conscious of

• Food We Eat
• Energy We Use
• Waste We Create

The intention is to make school students, staff and community members aware of effects their daily choices have on environment and society, and to make choices that create a sustainable society based on renewable practices and conservation of natural resources.

The values and habits that young people acquire in a garden will remain with them the rest of their lives, and prepare them to make wiser, more sustainable choices to create their own future on Earth. Sustainable education must be rooted in family values, community service, hands-on fieldwork and practical lifestyle.

To present issues and ideas to students and visitors, A-frame signboards were built to announce the organic, renewable message. Each signboard focuses on one aspect of garden organization and operation. Students help to build, paint and letter them. Taken to conferences and festivals, they make a larger community aware of the garden and what it teaches.

Students who participate in the garden learn that there are four obstacles that need to be overcome in order to grow an abundance of healthy food, whether it is a home garden or a large scale agriculture.

Organic food production strives to overcome these four obstacles without chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Instead, organic gardening relies on natural materials and methods to provide soil fertility, and to manage weeds, insects and other pests. The means we must recognize and accept that nature has certain limits with regard to how we treat the soil and plants.

The goal of the organic garden is to feed healthy people and assure a healthy planet, both today and for endless future generations. This begins by creating healthy soil, which means growing healthy food, which allows us to feed healthy people and preserve a planet.

Every body is a water body. Water is essential for life, and is a fundamental ingredients that make plants grow.

The amount of fresh water that is available on the Earth today never changes. The same amount of fresh water that was here when the dinosaurs were here is here today, and will be here for future generations. If we pollute it or use it up, we harm ourselves and deprive future generations of the possibility of abundance.

The amount of fresh water and water scarcity will need to be solved through food production. Today, 70% of all the fresh water on Earth is used for crop irrigation. Water experts agree that in order to solve our looming fresh water crisis, we need to change the way that we grow our food to use it more wisely.

Chemicals that are used to produce food present environmental and health risks in terms of air pollution, water pollution and farmworker safety. Non-point pollution from farm chemicals and manures running off farmland is a serious and growing problem today. Nitrous oxides, carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases released from farmland and farming operations are known to contribute to greenhouse gases that are creatin global warming.

Alternatives to using chemicals to grow food do exist, have been proven effective and economical, and present a healthier environmental option. By making different choices about how we grow our food, and what foods we choose to eat every day, we can contribute to reducing environmental problems and create healthier people.

Our first principle is "feed the soil, not the plant." Soil is a living food web of organisms, from the tiniest bacteria to huge trees with roots. The more alive we make our soil, the healthier we will grow our vegetables.

In order to feed the soil, so soil can feed plants, we use only natural and organic soil amendments. Compost, bonemeal, bloodmeal, wood ashes, compost tea, lime, and green manures are a few of the ways that we maintain organic soil fertility in our organic garden.

The harvest that we yield is directly related to how fertile the soil is. Organic farming is defined by how it sustains soil fertility. Maintaining soil structure and quality with natural methods and materials allows us to grow food and donate food sustainably for years to come.

All our fertilizers, soil amendments and plant sprays are approved for use in "Certified Organic" farming under the USDA National Organic Program.

Weeds compete with our vegetables for soil nutrients and for water. They also create places for insect pests and other rodents to hide in our garden.

The garden is tilled with a rototilled once a year, and then the soil is flipped at different times through the year by hand by the students. This way we do not kill the worms and the other organisms that are in the soil that facilitate the growing process.

We do a tremendous amount of hand weeding and mulching to help keep weeds under control. We also incorporate green manures to cover the soil so that weeds won't take hold while providing additional nutrients to the soil.

Rotating our crops allows the larger crops that form a canopy over the soil which naturally de-weed the soil, to be followed by smaller crops that are naturally more prone to weeds.

Insect pests and diseases pose a threat to our garden yield each year. Our goal is to manage insect pest and diseases in sustainable ways which help promote a healthy garden system.

The fencing that surrounds the perimeter of the garden keeps out deer that like to each vegetables. Additional chicken wire fencing is buried one foot in the ground to keep out rabbits and burrowing animals like woodchucks.

Another pest management technique is row covers—a thin, loosely woven fabric that is draped over the plants and tucked into the soil around the edges. This keeps insect pests away from the plants while allowing sunshine, air and water in.

In the garden, 90% of the insects are beneficial to the growing system. Only 10% pose a threat. Spraying chemical pesticides kills all the insects in the garden, not just the ones that are harmful. That means the ladybugs, earthworms, spiders and all the beneficial insects die as well.

Crop rotations also help manage insect pests. Virtually all vegetables have insect pests that burrow in the ground and over-winter to the next growing season. By changing the crop grown in a particular bed every year, any insect pest that wakes up in the spring and emerges will find a different vegetable crop, therefore eliminating its food source. Growing the same crop in the same soil every year will encourage that crop's pests.