SAGE Garden Project

Welcome to the blog of the SAGE garden group project in CSS 205: Soil Science!

Our group members are Kirsten Williams (leader), Michaela Bateman, Michael Burgett, Nikolas Gianopulos, Kelsey Hoth, and Alyssa Lillybridge

To begin, here is a link to the SAGE garden and what it's all about: SAGE Garden Website

1. What is this project’s direct connection to soil?

The Starker Arts Garden for Education’s direct connection to our local soil is obvious. The garden is dedicated to educating community members about soil and about how to use their soil to produce fresh produce for their families. Another objective of SAGE, providing community members facing tough times with fresh, healthy produce, is directly dependent on their careful management of the soil on their one acre in southwest Corvallis. Thanks to the quality of the soil at the site, and the quality management it has received over the years, SAGE was able to produce nearly 7,000 lbs of fresh produce for local food banks and soup kitchens in 2011. Garden managers at SAGE demonstrate a variety of soil enhancement techniques to the public, hopefully leading people to take a creative, integrated approach to growing their own food. Gardening techniques at SAGE that follow the common mantra of good soil management include adding organic matter through compost, cover crops, and sheet mulching during the winter in addition to minimizing disturbance and ranging chickens at the site. The best thing SAGE does is bring people who might otherwise have no connection to the soil or crop production in close contact with it. Parents with small children and volunteers of every age come to the garden to get their hands dirty and help grow food for their community. Some children don’t know where any of their produce comes from, but after one field trip to SAGE, where they get to play with worms and pick grapes, they learn.

2. How does soil make this project work? – be specific - show data, evidence, research.

The Starker Arts Garden for Education is all about growing different fruits and vegetables to either donate or sell. You can’t have a garden without soil so the soil that sits on this property is what makes it all possible. Because the texture of the soil is a silty loam this means that there is not a large percentage of sand or clay. Silt soils have less air space, which gives it the ability to hold water, but often it can be too much, eliminating air that is required by roots for nutrient and gas exchange. Silt mixed with some clay can be very spongy like and have the ability to create capillary rise and expand its water intake throughout the soil. If you look at the soil profile below you can see that once you get down to 24 inches (2 ft.) and deeper we start seeing some clay mixed in with the silt. This can sometimes be a problem in this area due to the large amounts of rain we get annually. Compost and worm piles are being maintained and updated regularly in order to obtain the soil it eventually creates. That soil is then taken and scattered at the bases of plants throughout the different crop gardens.

3. Is there a way that soil management changes could improve this project?

The SAGE garden’s goals and mission of growing food and other plants in order to educate the public and provide food to local food banks are extremely dependent on soil quality and management. Better understanding of the soil and its properties could improve the productivity of the land and increase the social benefit of the project. In the winter the garden experiences very cold temperatures and plenty of rainfall. It’s important that the soil has a high cation exchange capacity to avoid losing nutrients through washouts in heavy rain. Improving bulk density by avoiding disturbance and compaction will help regulate drainage through the wet winter. Stable aggregates with a wide range of pore sizes will help the productivity remain high as the weather turns warmer and drier. Corvallis’ summer frequently sustains 80 degree temperatures or more with little rainfall. The aggregates and pores should have a high water holding capacity that provides availability of water to the plants through the dry periods. If the only pores still holding water are too small, plants will have to try harder to extract the soil, throw internal and atmospheric pressure out of balance, and reach the wilting point. A thorough understanding of soil could offer management solutions if the garden were to face problems with productivity.

During the project we learned about building a 3 bin composting system, and the ideal conditions and contents to improve the formation of compost. The balance of wet and dry, and green and brown materials is an important process in eventually being able to add that organic matter to the soil. I personally really enjoyed building the compost piles, as well as looking at the different kinds because hopefully I’ll be able to implement something similar in the future.

4. From this project, what did you learn about soils that you did not know before?

Although I previously knew that there are many different types of plants and they all require soil to grow, there is much more of an impact when you see a small area producing many different types of crops extremely well. From one soil dozens of different foods were produced in high quantities really emphasizing how having a good soil makes all the difference in food production. Through seeing how important good quality soil is, the concept of composting became much more understandable; recycle what was taken from the soil so the soil remains nutrient rich! Of course, in agriculture we don't recycle everything- we take the produce and consume it. Many pounds of produce was harvested just in the four hours we were there, and this was the off season! Again, this emphasized how important composting is as in the project we added llama poop to the compost to compensate for the loss of nutrients from harvesting.

5. What is the broader impact of the organization or project you helped with?

The SAGE garden project helps many families and students in the Corvallis area. Four tons of produce is harvested each year that goes to the local food bank for students and families to have if they are unable to afford fresh produce. Local elementary schools also utilize SAGE as a teaching center. Students go out to the garden and learn about the diverse of crops, worms and compost. SAGE gives back to the Corvallis community in a variety of ways.

SAGE is an awesome way to give back to the community. All the produce that goes to the local food bank and the teaching it does from elementary kids to college age. Given the opportunity to do my service learning project here was an eye opener. I would have never known that this garden was here and that you could volunteer. So many people in the community use this facility whether directly or indirectly it is a good feeling being apart of it.

6. Soil description of the place where you worked - this must include a soils map and soil series descriptions of important soils within the area.

The Starker Arts Garden for Education is roughly four acres in size. According the web soil survey from the USDA, there are two different types of soil that reside within those four acres. The majority of the soil (96.5%) is Willamette silt loam, and the there is some Amity silt loam as well (3.5%).

Willamette silt loam is classified as: FINE-SILTY, MIXED, SUPERACTIVE, MESIC PACHIC ULTIC ARGIXEROLLS

Amity silt loam is classified as: FINE-SILTY, MIXED, SUPERACTIVE, MESIC ARGIAQUIC XERIC ARGIALBOLLS

The typical soil profile for the area is at follows:

· 0 to 6 inches: Silt loam
· 6 to 13 inches: Silt loam
· 13 to 24 inches: Silt loam
· 24 to 33 inches: Silty clay loam
· 33 to 45 inches: Silty clay loam
· 45 to 53 inches: Silty clay loam
· 53 to 60 inches: Silty clay loam

SAGE UNIT SOIL MAP