Volunteers Tend the Gaucho Urban Garden

Several students and a faculty member gathered on October 14, 2016 to tend Glendale Community College’s Gaucho Urban Garden. It is located on the GCC main campus between the Language Arts and Humanities buildings. The garden was started three years ago and anyone who is interested may participate in its care. Meeting dates and times are listed on GCC’s website in the Events Calendar.

Angela Schwendiman, from the Biology faculty, talks to the student volunteers about they are going to be planting in the community garden. The north section of the garden will be planted completing the work started two weeks earlier in the south section.

Angela Schwendiman shows the volunteers how to prepare the soil before the seeds can be planted. The plants are arranged in sections like a square foot garden, and they are watered by an ecological drip irrigation system.

April Truscott, Biotech, Alex Garcia, Nursing, and Alyssa Figuerroa, Nursing, plant root and leafy vegetables in alternating sections so that nothing becomes overly crowded. Unlike most of the United States, Arizona has a low desert climate and the growing seasons are reversed. Planting is done in the fall and harvesting happens throughout the winter and spring before the temperatures become too hot.

The volunteers get their hands dirty helping to maintain the Gaucho Urban Garden. Their hard work benefits everyone at Glendale Community College. Angela Schwendiman, the faculty adviser, says that when the vegetables are harvested, they are given out to anyone who is interested, not just the volunteers who have worked in the garden.