I are starting to get some direction for my position here. The university is located on about 22 acres of land. Part of this is used by the buildings and parking lots but the majority is unused grassland with sparsely populated trees. The current plan is for me to till up a small piece of land in the spring and plant a large vegetable garden. The majority of the vegetables will be used by the school's cafeteria, but we will also look to maybe sell some at the market and analyze the possible revenue.
I grew up on a farm, but have very little experience in the area of gardening. Being the nerd that I am, I have been reading books and websites devoted to the topic in hopes of learning the basics. Everyone writes that the key is experience. I hope to experience at least a little success. Many people on campus have small gardens and several of them have already helped me find places to buy seeds and other supplies. I hope they continue to advise me in proper times to do things as well as techniques so I don't end up with a big garden full of dry grass in the fall. I am getting really excited about the task and have started inquiring about starting a compost pile with the scraps from the cafeteria. I also want to start a miniature greenhouse in our living room. We have almost nothing in there right now (and Laura is ok with the idea). I hope to grow some herbs and other small things in there. I will also need to do a lot of seed starting in coming months.
Next semester there is a league of businesswomen coming to campus to teach a basic business class. We gave the instructors a list of business possibilities for the students to explore. This will be the first, most basic type of such business ventures.
We hope that this will lead to the construction of a small greenhouse in the summer months. The goal is to get a lot of student involvment in the planning as well as the labor so they can get some practical business experience. We will continue to write about the progress as well as other possibilities.
Dave
