I technically already finished my garden internship, but just couldn’t seem to stay away. I’m back a week early to work there a bit more before classes start.I returned to the garden this morning after several weeks away, and found it to be as beautiful as ever:  an early morning fog hanging low, the smell of moist earth, ripe tomatoes on their fragrant vines, and the chickens just starting to stir and peep in their coops. The two small roosters are just learning to crow, and it’s darling to see them clumsily fly to the highest perch they can find, strain their tiny necks, and try their hardest to sound big and tough (it comes out a cute, wimpy, “cock-a-doo-ooo”).I walked back to my dorm room feeling wide awake and at peace in a way that I can’t just can’t seem to feel in many other places. I didn’t have my camera, but that’s alright, because I believe that the most beautiful things (like a garden’s smell and feel, not just appearance) are made all the more beautiful by merit of the fact that their beauty can’t be captured. I do, however, have a picture (below), of me holding one of the little guys with little crows a while back, and Ludo with el Jefe.So fall is coming soon, and classes starting sooner, and I’m looking foward to a little fall gardening and even to the winter preparations. There’s just always so much to see and do in the garden.

We’ve harvested a few things in the garden (herbs, squash, peas, onions, and bok choy to name a few), but the most delicious so far has been raspberries.We actually didn’t plant these raspberries, but rather just let them be. They’re wild, and grow along the fence and in a bed where we planted some cuttings (the cuttings aren’t producing yet). Every day there are more wonderfully tart, red, ripe raspberries that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I’ll be making a cobbler tonight while the season’s bounty lasts!

Until recently, our rooster didn’t have a name. He was simply called “The Rooster.” We felt that no title could do justice to his arrogant cockiness. He reigns over a kingdom as far as the eye can see. From a chicken’s eye view, that is only about three hundred feet. However, to The Rooster, such trivial details regarding size and distance obviously do not matter. Although we are nearly three times as tall, apparently that makes no difference to him. Every run in with The Rooster seems to mirror a David versus Goliath struggle - with The Rooster playing Goliath!”Chicken wrangler” is the standard job title for us students who are dealing with hens this summer in Randolph College’s Organic Garden, but with the addition of The Rooster our job seems closer to “Matador.” As I enter the bullring, the rooster begins to charge. I pull out my red bandana to distract him. Olé! Often times an audience of forty or so amused chicks gathers around to watch the spectacle. Following a series of deft maneuvers that include some impressive passes, I usually succeed at luring him into the chicken coop for the night. Next, I try my luck with the balls of fluff, employing more maneuvers that make herding cats look simple. After getting a good chuckle out of my pitiful attempts at baby chick wrangling, The Rooster will let out a cock-a-doodle-do signaling all the chicks to obediently get in the coop.The chicks already knew The Rooster’s name. Now I know it, too: he is “El Jefe,” aka “the Boss.” I have a lot to learn. Olé!

The organic garden has had a few chickens for a while now, and we love having them there. The benefits of chickens are numerous: pest control, wonderful organic fertilizer, & delicious fresh eggs ”produced” right in our garden.

This spring, Karl hatched an ingenious “adopt-a-chicken” program, and over 40 students and faculty members selected a chicken breed and named their soon-to-be baby chick. The chicks arrived shortly after, tiny and fluffy and cute as can be:

That was a while ago, and our not-so-tiny chicks just moved outside this week! There’s plenty of pictures, so take a look at their big day in the big new world (and if you’re a proud chick parent or if you’re just curious, come visit them in the garden)!

Moving out of the old carboard box house:

Timidly peeking out of the new house down in the garden:

The first chick brave enough to jump out:

The RC Organic Garden recently held a workshop on permacultural practices for the Lynchburg community!We had a great turnout and met some of the loveliest people from all over the Lynchburg area.This is Ludo, showing a couple of workshop participants how we sheet compost:

And this is kind friend of Mr. Abbassi’s who volunteered to teach  swale construction at the workshop:

We’re planning another garden workshop for later in the summer… stay tuned for details, we’d love to have you!