1. Acknowledgements: Many thanks to the Garden Coordinator Jenny Schwanke for working
closely with me in this process.
Ensuring the Future of the Hale-Y Community Garden Farmscape
Hale-Y Community Garden, Blacksburg, VA
Emily Bacon
Civic Agriculture and Food Systems, VA Tech
Abstract
The 2015 season of the Hale-Y Community Garden will host an enlivened farmscape
planting to provide an attractive cutting garden while attracting beneficial insects for pollination
and pest control. The farmscape garden began in 2011, as the product of two Civic Agriculture
students’ work. It has been planted and modified annually. In 2015, the best plan will be a fresh
start. A plant directory and a pamphlet highlighting the ecological benefits of farmscaping will
be posted on a nearby kiosk. The information will give gardeners and volunteers the knowledge
needed to care for the garden. An innovative planting strategy consisting of alternating blocks of
annual and perennial plants will allow annuals to be replanted each year without disturbing the
perennials. Nineteen plants were chosen for specific beneficial properties including coriander,
calendula, yarrow, sunflower, dill, Queen Anne’s lace, sweet alyssum, cornflower, cosmos, black
eyed susans, goldenrod, verbena, cilantro, marigolds, borage, buckwheat, coneflowers, and
evening primrose. The project fosters ecological stewardship by supporting pest control.
Community volunteer, Virginia Tech students and children’s groups will all be involved in
experiential learning through planting, weeding and studying about the benefits of farmscapes.
Additionally social capital grows with the growing relationships between volunteers and
gardeners.
In the past the garden has provided many benefits to the Hale-Y Community, benefits
that this project hopes to expand upon. For instance the garden fosters ecological stewardship
through supporting a multidisciplinary approach to pest control, it stimulates experiential
learning by volunteers with varying garden experience working together, in addition to
developing social capital by building relationships between volunteers and gardeners.