August/September 2023: Progress in our "Patch and Pond" garden has been phenomenal! Our indefatigable aquaponics maven, Joel Mojica, has built and continues to build an incredible system of fish and plant interdependence that is truly magical. A 'soft opening" is planned for September 17, 2023 from 11AM- 3 PM. This will be a chance to show the progress thus far as well as inspire engagement from other community members. Meanwhile, feast your eyes on the progress in these photos taken Saturday, September 2.
July 2023: Garden Update: Thank you to those of you who voted for our Patch Garden in June. Unfortunately, despite having close to 400 votes, we did not win the contest. But we remain committed to finding other funding sources for our amazing garden. Over the summer great strides were made. Fish were introduced to the tanks, small plants were started on the floating beds and now a second bed is almost complete. We also are working on updating the existing greenhouse and we scored a free shed for our tools!
Spring 2023: We started with a mess. COVID and changes in staff left our aquaponics garden in a state of disrepair. The current biology teacher didn't even know that she had access to it.
One day, the college we have space on, Mesa, asked us to give it up. We were baffled. Give up something we didn't even know we had? Hold on just a sec. So the biology teacher (Tabby), the business teacher (Gini) and the avid gardener/Humanities teacher (Veronica) started talking. We collectively knew people who were interested in helping. Veronica knew an aquaponics expert who was excited to start a garden that would help feed our neighbors. That's when we met Joel. This and that, that and this, and we are on our way! Patch and Pond was born!