Tag Archives: 2018

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Ready for the open house, Happy Earth Day! – Last Day of Hands-on Work (Day 7)

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • April 24, 2018 , , ,

On the 21st of April, members of our group met at the City of Reading greenhouse for our seventh (and last) day of hands-on work. Our goal for the day was to help the greenhouse prep for the Earth Day event which was held on the 22nd of April. The following tasks were performed by our group throughout the day:

  • Arranging and separating pots

  • Placing the plants (that can be seen in the image below) into the arranged pots so that they can be replanted by guests

  • Moving six bags of mulch around the greenhouse

  • Decluttering the doorway area 


  • Sweeping out the entrance and staircase area

  • Moving a Red Oleander tree to the doorway for a more inviting entrance

  • We trimmed some portions of the Red Oleander tree so that it wouldn’t obstruct the entrance. George was kind enough to allow us to take the cuttings which we planted to take home with us!

We had an amazing experience throughout the past few week at the greenhouse and this being the last day of hands-on work, we couldn’t miss out on getting a group photo with Brian and George! 🙂

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Last minute cleanups before the big open house – Day 6 of Hands-on Work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • April 12, 2018 , , ,


On the 31st of March, members of our group met at the City of Reading greenhouse for our sixth day of hands-on work. Our goal for the day was to help with the cleanup of the greenhouse before the upcoming open house. Tasks included the following:

  • Spray painting plant pots black in color to make them more energy efficient. To do this, the pots were first carried in a trolley outside of the greenhouse where they were spray painted. Each of the pots were meticulously placed back in the greenhouse where they were left to dry.


  • An outside cleaning of the greenhouse was completed in preparation for the open house and to create a space for the local public school to learn about and grow gardens. To do this, leaves were blown, raked and carted away to recycling piles. In addition to this, planters and plants were organized.

    We felt great leaving behind a much more cleaner and organized greenhouse 🙂
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Out with the old and in with the new – Day 5 of Hands-on work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • April 1, 2018 , , ,


On the 24th of March, members of our group met at the City of Reading greenhouse for our fifth day of hands-on work. Our goal for the day was to help get the greenhouse ready for the upcoming open house – this involved emptying expired plant pots, replanting many overgrown plants by separating them and planting them in individual pots to sell at the open house as well as arranging plants throughout the greenhouse. Recycling dead plant material into new material for replanting and dividing overgrown plants is something that fascinated our group and we’re glad to get the opportunity to try it out today! 🙂

The following tasks were performed by us throughout the day:

  • Collecting, picking up and moving expired plant containers


  • The collected containers were then emptied out – separating the plant matter (which was collected in a bucket) and the dirt (which was collected in the tray)

  • Peat-moss was then added into the tray in which we collected the dirt from all the containers

We now shifted our focus to helping re-pot and plant different varieties of plants. The following steps were followed for each type of plant:

Cactus Plants:
    • A new container was filled partly with the mixture of peat moss and dirt created above

    • The cactus plant was then inserted into the container

    • More dirt/peat-moss mixture was added to the container to ensure that the cactus plant is firmly fixed in the container

    • These steps were repeated for two other cactus plants of the same type. You can see the three cactus plants in the image below after they had been planted

    • The cactus plants were then watered

    • Manure was collected from the pile outside the greenhouse and added to the tray

    • We found another cactus plant that needed to be planted, so we used the mixture of dirt and manure to plant it (following the previous steps noted above)

    • In addition to these four cactus plants, a different type of cactus plant was re-potted. The before and after photos of this cactus plant can be seen below:

      Before:

After: (plant was repotted using new container, mixture of manure/dirt and tiny weeds growing were removed)

Aloe Vera Plants:

Just like the cactus plants, multiple aloe vera were planted using the mixture of manure/dirt and the steps noted above.

Bromeliad Plants:

Many of these were planted using the mixture of manure/dirt that was created earlier. The image below shows one of the final products of the bromeliad plant.

Putting together a hydroponic plant:

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Fueling Up On Nuts – Day 4 Of Hands-on Work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • March 22, 2018 , , ,

On the 16th of March, members of our group met at the City of Reading greenhouse for our fourth day of hands-on work. Our goal for the day was to plant four Barbados nut (Jatropha curcas) plants. This plant is popularly used in the production of bio-fuels. In addition to this, our group also helped replant a 34 year old orange tree into a larger container (Throwback to Day 2 of hands-on work where we planted several orange trees).The following tasks were performed throughout the day to reach our end goal of planting the Barbados nut plants:

  • Collecting buckets of saw dust, manure and heavy dirt from the piles present outside the greenhouse

  • We collected two buckets of each of the following four piles:
    • Saw Dust: Acts just like peat moss, helping create a bio-web and acts as sponge to pull nutrients.
    • Manure 1: Animal waste that is broken down by bacteria, in turn used by plants. This pile consisted of waste from chicken.
    • Manure 2: Similar to Manure 1. However, this pile consists of waste from rabbits. Manure helps add both biological material as well as nutrients.
    • Heavy Dirt: Acts as a structure for the plant to hold onto.

  • Taking the buckets back into the greenhouse and putting the contents of the bucket into a tray

  • Mixing the collected saw dust, manure and heavy dirt in the tray to create an even mixture

  • Gathering the Barbados nut plants

  • Removing the plants from their current buckets

  • Removing the cup and dirt present around roots


  • Removing the singular water container (the white pipe) and dumping out the contents present in the container

We met an unexpected friend while digging out the dirt 🙂

  • Adding in the cup and the singular water container container back into the emptied out container

  • Collecting the mixture of saw dust, manure and heavy dirt created in step 3

  • Adding in the plant and the mixture into the container


  • Leveling the mixture and making sure that the plant is strongly rooted in the container

  • These same steps were repeated for the remaining Barbados nut plants and in the image below, you can see the Ninja Turtles with the final product!

In addition to this, we replanted an orange tree into a larger container. The following steps were performed:
  • Gathered the orange and a large pot


  • Removed the orange tree from it’s existing container and removed the dirt around its roots

  • The large pot was then filled up with the mixture created in step 3 and the tree was added into the pot

  • Lastly, all the plants were watered.


A fruit from the orange tree

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Tree hugging and some planting – Day 3 of Hands-on work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • March 8, 2018 , , ,

On the 2nd of March, members of our group met at the City of Reading greenhouse for our third day of hands-on work. Our goal of the day was to plant cherry, peach and pear trees. This might sound easy at first, but the process was very labour intensive. However, we had a lot of fun while performing the tasks required to help plant these trees. The following tasks were performed by our group members:

  • Collecting multiple buckets of different types of manure (composed of chicken, rabbit and horse excrement).

  • Taking the buckets back into the greenhouse and dumping the manure into a tray.

  • Adding in peat moss to the tray consisting of manure & mixing it.

  • Collecting multiple large containers to place the trees in.
  • Filling the bottom of the containers with black mulch.

  • We then placed a bucket inside the centre of the containers and filled the remaining portions of the containers with the mixture of peat moss and manure that we previously made. Placing a bucket in the centre (which we will remove later on) makes it easier for us to place the tree inside the container.

  • Bringing in different buckets of cherry, peach and pear trees from outside the greenhouse.

  • Removing the buckets placed inside the container and shifting the trees from their existing container into the larger ones that we just prepared.

  • Adding in a mixture of the manure/peat moss and the dirt from the previous containers around the tree to make sure that it is fixed properly inside the container.
After following all of the steps above, we achieved our end goal of the day which was to plant cherry, peach and pear trees.

Cherry Tree

Pear Trees

Peach Tree

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A Fruitful Day At The Greenhouse Planting Orange Trees – Day 2 Of Hands-on Work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • February 27, 2018 , , ,


On the 23rd of February, our team members met at the greenhouse for our second day of hands-on work (in case you missed it, check out our first day of hands-on work here). Our end objective for the day was to plant several orange trees at the greenhouse, however to achieve that, we had to complete several tasks as  listed below:

    • Collecting manure (made out of chicken, rabbit and horse excrement).

    • Taking it back into the greenhouse and mixing it with old/existing manure + plant waste.

    • Separating the seedlings from the small orange plant.

    • Filling up multiple plastic containers with manure and the separated seedlings.

After the previous step, we made use of other containers to work on an alternative method – growing the orange seedlings using hydroponics. The steps below show some of the tasks that followed:
  • Separating the seedlings from the small orange plant.
  • Adding peat moss into the hydroponic friendly containers.
  • Soaking perlite into a bin filled with water and then separating the soaked perlite into another container. (Perlite helps retain form and structure in addition to helping hold water).

  • Mixing the above perlite into the peat moss and adding the separated seedlings into the hydroponic friendly containers

  • Gathering larger painted containers to put the hydroponic friendly containers in it.
  • Filling three fourths of the the painted containers with water and inserting the hydroponic friendly containers into it.

And voila! We successfully achieved our objective which was set for the day.

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Ninja Turtles meet Master Splinter – our first look at the greenhouse!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • February 6, 2018 , , ,

Ninja Turtles being taught about a type of berry by Master Splinter aka. George

On the 2nd of February, our team met with the Brian and George from the “City of Reading City Park Greenhouse Urban Agriculture”. Upon entering the greenhouse, we were amazed to see the different variety of plant species which were being grown inside. We were greeted by Brian and George after which we introduced ourselves, and discussed some important events that we will be assisting the staff to prepare. Three potential events were discussed which we plan on working on over the course of the next few months:

Early March:

The first project is to help with an open house for the public which is going to be held in the beginning of March. Our tasks shall include the following:

  • Cleaning the greenhouse and organizing the office area.
  • Weeding the container plants along with pruning the plants and trees of dead debris.
  • Helping to sort the cuttings by genus and beautifying the greenhouse.
Late March:

The second project is working to complete the production cycle for the plant sale in late March. Our tasks shall include the following:

  • Helping to propagate the plants and prepare the containers for the sale.
  • Helping to care for the plants by watering, weeding and staking the plants.
  • Helping to start the cuttings and learn about the use of Agrobioponics, which is used successfully at the greenhouse through an idea created by George.
April:

The third project is the global initiative for youth which takes place in April. The greenhouse will host 300 plus children and introduce them to urban agriculture. The idea is to get the children excited about growing and caring for the plants that will supply food for them. They will learn that you do not need to live on a farm or have a large backyard to harvest food. The idea is to help people sustain themselves with their own food when necessary.

After finalizing this, Brian and George were kind enough to inform us about the basic methodology of growing a plant. They also told us about the different kind of techniques that they use to grow their plants such as hydroponics, aquaponics and agrobioponics – the latter being a hybrid technique created by George. We learnt a lot from this part of the discussion however one thing which amazed us all was a statement made by George wherein he said that “plants excrete waste”.

Our group was also given a tour of the greenhouse where we were shown and explained different types plants, structures that they were being grown in and the different techniques which were being used as mentioned in the beginning of the article. Below are some of the images that capture the beautiful greenhouse and our first time looking at these plants!

A look at the various different plants in the greenhouse.

We were extremely delighted with our first trip and we look forward to meeting them the coming week. You can learn more about the organization that we are helping out by accessing the following links:

City Park GreenHouse

The Garden of Ease