The Beacon

Issue date: 4/27/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Gino Troiani A community-managed garden plot, to be called the Fenner Farm, is located on the corner of South River and Ross Streets. Last week, faculty, staff and students were out en force covering rows of new growth.

It looked like a scene from the movie Tremors: long cylindrical mounds of dirt mysteriously stopping at the corner of Ross and River Streets on the lot where Brown's deli used to sit. However, 30 foot man-eating graboids have been ruled out as the perpetrators.

The mounds are the result of an organic community vegetable plot under the supervision of Dr. Ellen Flint, Lee Pressman and Andy Rhinehardt, Agronomy Specialists from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, who have made good use of the land left over from the demolition of the abandoned deli this winter.

"We did the tilling and made the beds on Sunday, and it was pretty amazing to see the community members come out and ask what was going on," said Pressman.

According to Dr. Marleen Troy, chair of the Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences Department, the committee for the SHE Building was influenced by SPIN farms on various green campuses, such as Dickinson's, when they were touring school grounds in search of features for the proposed "green" science building.

"Fenner Farm," as it will be called in honor of Mr. Fenner, an avid gardener whose vegetable garden once spread across the greenway to the Stark Learning Center, utilizes a new method of gardening called SPIN (Small Plot Intensive); a relatively new, inexpensive type of farming that makes it possible to earn an income from plots of land under an acre in size, including front and back yards. SPIN sells specialty how-to packets online for anyone who is interested in organizing their own sub-farm.

"We feel it would be a great honor to Mr. Fenner and his great contributions to Wilkes," said Flint, Coordinator of the Undergraduate Experience.

As a handheld earthway seeder carefully sowed the land, traces of arugula started to peek through the soil, stretching for sunlight. Wilkes faculty including Troy, Shelley Pearce, Director of the Wilkes Music Conservatory and Sharon Bower, Associate Professor of Art were all on hand to help place floating row covers over the plot, which act as miniature greenhouses to help keep in sunlight as well as moisture.

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