The time is ripe for marking the season of gratitude and the end of the growing season at Williston. In preparation for this transition, the class of 2025 connected with where our food comes from by harvesting the last of the Campus Community Garden’s carrots and potatoes just before going on break. Students cut back raspberry bushes, planted cloves of garlic, and mulched the beds with leaves. Some lettuce sprouts were discovered coming up from plants that had gone to seed. Students transplanted these seedlings into containers and placed them in the cold frame: a winter experiment, completed just in time to beat the weekend’s snowstorm.
Campus residents add raw kitchen prep scraps to the garden’s own compost bin. At the moment, the bin looks full but it will settle and decompose as users add fresh produce waste. Composters can add chopped leaves from a nearby pile to cover the scraps, balancing the composition of the material.
These last fall tasks prepare the beds for an early and easy replanting at the first signs of spring.