U.S. Army Garrison - Detroit Arsenal, Mich. -- The Child Development Center recently received a grant for nearly $1,400 to create a self-sustaining irrigation system for the center's garden project.
The North Central Region-Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (NCR-SARE) grant was awarded through the University of Minnesota upon application by CDC staff member Dave Galer.
"We plan to create a self-sustaining irrigation system for our existing garden project which includes two rainwater collection systems tied into our building's downspouts," said Galer. "We will run plastic tubing from these to the gardens and plan to build a windmill that will pump the water from the rainwater collectors to the gardens. We plan to use drip emitters installed in the plastic tubing at each fruit/vegetable plant to maximize irrigation efficiency by conserving water usage and by irrigating the plants' root systems directly."
"This project will help to teach our students the importance of water and energy conservation," added Galer. "Although we used gravity fed drip irrigation systems in two of the vegetable beds last season, the reservoir tanks on those systems still had to be filled from the building's outdoor spigot. This project will show our students how we can lessen our dependence on the municipal water supply, conserve our water resource and decrease our environmental footprint. Additionally, the use of wind power will teach a valuable lesson in energy conservation, further decreasing our environmental footprint."
The staff will continue to use the produce grown in the gardens to supplement Child, Youth and School Services summer camp menus and will sell the produce to parents and other installation employees at the Delicious, Tasty, All-natural Veggie Stand. The stand is staffed by volunteers from the Middle School Teen program and proceeds are used for future 4-H programming.
The idea of starting the gardening program began when Galer and Teresa Brodsky, MST director, took a class offered by the 4-H Extension Service entitled Let's Get Growing, Gardening With Kids.
"With knowledge gained from that class, and inspired by Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative, I conceived the idea of a garden project which would involve CYSS youth in all age groups," said Galer. "The project was planned and constructed by our MST youth last spring and summer on the grounds of the CDC."
The project incorporated 17 raised beds which include four dedicated vegetable beds, a five-foot by seven foot regulation size American Flag bed, a pizza garden, eight "tot plots", a square foot garden, four bean tepees, a prairie sunflower house and three potato gardens made from recycled tires which are decorated to look like Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head & Tater Tot. The project also involved red worm and yard composting and gravity fed drip irrigation systems.
Money from this year's grant will be used to install two rainwater collection systems in the downspouts of the CDC building and a water distribution system for all the gardens. The youth will build four additional four foot by eight foot raised beds used to grow strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and boysenberries.
"We will construct windmill models to learn about design and construction techniques," said Galer. "We will then apply what we have learned in the design and construction of two working windmills at the project site which we will tie into the plastic tubing to pump water from the rainwater collectors to the fruit and vegetable beds."
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