Via West Campus – Greenhouse & Garden
Repurposing and using Greenhouse and Garden to plant veggies, currently for Via West Kitchen and donation to the West Valley Community Services (WVCS) in Cupertino.
During a limited work party on May 15 and 16, 2020, after the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, at Via West Camp, Lion Joan found out that there is a Greenhouse close to the vegetable gardens for which the Club built fences against the deer in 2018. It turned out that the Greenhouse facility is quite well-equipped with electricity, water, overhead watering system, strong ventilation, heating, as well as planting benches, lots of pots of various sizes and some planting mixtures in bags. The condition of the Greenhouse was deemed mostly fine, requiring some work to pick up, sort out, clean up, composting old soils, washing the glass, etc.
After inspecting the gardens, Lion Joan noted that the differently sized raised beds needed to be weeded and prepared for planting. Various barriers and other remediations would be required to protect plants from raccoons, ground squirrels, and moles.
With the Camp closed during summer and the rest of the year due to the Covid pandemic, the club decided to take on the project of clearing the garden and greenhouse, start planting vegetables and offering fresh ‘farm-to-table’ produce – if not for the campers, then for the Cupertino West Valley Community services.
Starting in summer/fall of 2021, produce was offered to the Camp kitchen as campers and school children started to arrive again, after Covid restrictions were loosened. A major part of the harvested goods still goes to the WVCS foodbank.
We are now in the third year of tending the garden and greenhouse. The garden area has been expanded and the entire area has been covered with bird netting. A special patch was created in front of the garden which was filled in summer with gorgeous sunflowers. Our bumper crop in 2022, however, were a vast variety of tomatoes, followed by greens, kale, zucchini, eggplants and herbs. Giant flowers added joyful colors to the garden. Now, as we enter the cooler months, the fall crops should be coming along, hopefully helped by some natural watering, aka rain!
Blog Posts about the Garden & Greenhouse
