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Saturday, March 13 was overcast and rainy, a day better suited to staying inside with a good book than driving stakes and fitting plastic tubing for the new community greenhouse. But bad weather couldn’t deter the two dozen Coal River Valley residents and volunteers who turned up for the first work day, eager to break ground on the sustainability initiatives they had been dreaming up for months. After a farmhouse breakfast of fried potatoes, frittata and blueberry muffins, the team laced up their work boots and headed outside to stake out the structure in the muddy ground.
Bad weather proved to be only one of many challenges.
“On a limited budget with limited resources, you have to change your plans to mold to the number of resources you have,” said volunteer Rob Goodwin, a surveying engineer who spent much of the morning tweaking the building plans.
Following a lunch of chili and cornbread, the afternoon was spent cleaning, sanding and cutting down plastic tubing. On Tuesday, a smaller crew regrouped and set up the hoop structures. Now, all that remains to be done is to put up the plastic sheeting and fill our greenhouse with plants!
“We’re hoping to start out with basic garden vegetables, and we should be getting peppers, cucumbers and a few other things soon,” said Maureen Farrell, part of the planting working group. They made their growing plan under the guidance of a local gardener, renowned for the flowers he raises on his Rock Creek Hollow property.
While the group ordered conventional seeds, they are hoping to shift towards organic and local varieties. By planting endangered, heirloom seeds whenever possible, the greenhouse will not only provide fresh produce and flowers to Coal River Valley residents, but also preserve a small part of their heritage.
The greenhouse is being built on land donated by the family of a Community Sustainability Team organizer. The property, in Arnett, is fairly flat, close to West Virginia Route 3 and adjacent to the Coal River. The community group will continue to look for land in Whitesville, a center point of the Valley, and on the Clear Fork of the Coal River, so that resources will be geographically accessible to all area residents.
More photographs from our first work day!
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