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Ninja Turtle’s EACAP Reflection!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • April 26, 2018 , , ,

Did you ever want to volunteer at a greenhouse? Do you love plants? Then do it! Do you eat food? Then do it! Do you like learning creative and innovative ideas? Then do it! Do you want to see recycling efforts in action? Then do it! Do you want to learn about new biofuels? Then do it! Yes, all of these activities and learning moments are open and available to the public at the City of Reading Greenhouse located in City Park on Constitution Blvd. Brian Twyman and George Davis are the masterminds behind this hidden gem located right in the middle of Reading. They will make you feel welcomed and teach you all the secrets, knowledge and skills behind their mission to make Reading a better place for its residents. The magic of the greenhouse was recently discovered by a couple of students from Penn State Berks and is best expressed in their own words.

Kathy’s thoughts:

What started out as a sewer project, that I was only moderately excited about, turned into an awesome, inspiring adventure working with some truly amazing people at the city greenhouse. From the very first visit to the Greenhouse in City Park you could feel the energy that radiated from the environment. Brian and George’s enthusiasm and passion was contagious and we were all captivated by their unending fountain of knowledge about the greenhouse and its mission. Whenever we arrived the signature music could be heard to greet you. There was never any negativity only hopefulness of a better future for the city and its residents. I put in a lot more hours than what was necessary because it became more than just a school assignment. It evolved into a greenhouse family and I was eager to learn from the masters. We were never just “free laborers” to the guys, every activity we were assigned to had become a lesson to be learned. We had the opportunity to experience everything they had to offer. We mixed growing mediums from three different soil compositions along with perlite and clay pellets used in the hydroponic plantings. We separated overgrown plants into their own containers and even worked with plant propagations. We worked with fruit trees, succulents, annuals, perennials and any other plant you can think of! George had many innovative ideas that he readily shared with us from planters, propagated biofuel trees, to his own secret planting method agro bioponics that allows containers plants to remain outdoors in a type of hibernation mode without killing them. I hope both men continue to pursue their mission in making Reading a better place that is full of pride through the beautification of its plants and its its goal of helping people to grow some of their own food supplies. Live local, eat local!

Rishabh’s thoughts:

I personally found this entire journey to be a fun and knowledgeable experience. Being an Information Science & Technology major, I had close to zero theoretical knowledge about any sort of farming techniques, let alone actually having to do it. However, today, at the end of our project, I can say that I have grown into an avid plant lover (I’m growing an orange tree and a red oleander tree currently) and my knowledge about the different types of farming methodologies & horticulture in general has increased greatly. All credit for this goes to Brian and George, who helped make my transition into the ‘greenhouse atmosphere’ very smooth and quick. Throughout the days that we were there, George and Brian ensured that we performed various different activities – whether that was replanting plants properly, spray painting containers or making soil mixtures. During these activities, Brian and George made sure that they explained the actual reason as to why we were doing something the way we were. I thought that this was crucial for my own learning experience since I wasn’t as well versed in this field unlike my team mates. In addition to this, I felt that this project allowed me to give back to the community. Every time we completed our assigned tasks at the greenhouse, I felt a great sense of accomplishment and happiness since we were contributing towards the betterment of the community. I truly hope that more people from the community start volunteering at the City of Reading Greenhouse and I wish Brian and George the best for the future! 🙂

Lauren’s thoughts:

I learned so much about alternative growing methods from working in the greenhouse. I thought it was so innovative that the greenhouse uses fish wastes from large tilapia tanks to fertilize their plants – its cuts down on toxic chemicals in the atmosphere as well as costs from having to purchase external sources of fertilizer. I also learned about agroponics through George. George opened up a whole new window of comprehension for me on the topic of growing plants. He has come up with such an innovative way to simplify the growing process – and his plants are able to go into hibernation mode during the winter which is a huge development when it comes to the topic of the loss of seasonal crops! Through the work at the green house, I learned how to replant plants properly, how to identify different plants, and how to identify weeds properly. I was able to experience eating amazing things that are not available fresh to us locally – like fresh coffee beans (unroasted) and how sweet they taste, as well as the explosion of flavor from a mini orange! I was able to be greeted with full bloom roses while it was snowing outside, and the smell of tangy lemon grass when I was longing for the beginning of those sweet spring months. Through the labor process of cleaning and reorganizing of the green house, I was able to experience a sense of community and pride. I found my time at the greenhouse to be a positive experience and I would suggest to anyone to take the time to stop by and experience it for themselves! George and Brian are incredibly welcoming and took the time to truly educate us on the topic of horticulture!

Cori’s thoughts:

From working in the greenhouse I gained a great amount of knowledge, along with life lessons as well. I learned that there were many different methods that can be used for future growers. I learned a brand new way from George that is inexpensive and works with any plant type. I think the biggest thing I got from the greenhouse was how good it felt leaving there knowing you just gave back to your community. Putting your time in to help make the greenhouse succeed gave me great joy. It was also very appreciated by Brian and George. At the end of the day we were putting smiles on their faces which led to smiles on ours.

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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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Digging into our turtle power – Day 1 of Hands-on work!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • February 13, 2018 , , ,


On the 10th of February, our team got together to start working on the various tasks that were needed to be completed for the open house – an event that is going to be held in the greenhouse during the month of March. (If you haven’t already, you can read about the different events and tasks that we’ll be working on by reading our previous blog post). Throughout the day, we performed various tasks which included the following:

  • Sweeping the greenhouse area.
  • Arranging and moving different types of plant containers.

  • Filling multiple containers with loam.


  • Collecting and disposing off plant debris across the greenhouse.

We decided to include the above image because it shows plant debris that have fallen beside the plant. This image also shows a plant being grown in the container.


  • Cutting multiple nodes of the Purple Queen (Tradescantia pallida) plant and planting these cuttings into the containers filled with loam.

We’re extremely happy to have been a part of this because these plants are going to be given away during the open house.

The Ninja Turtles had a great time during our day at work and we are looking forward to our next trip to the greenhouse! 🙂

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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