Yes, the St. James agronomy team is diving into the gardening business. Well, not actually the entire team, but the landscape department. Terry Gottshalk, Director of the Landscape Department, created a rotating vegetable and herb garden to help supplement the produce in the restaurants throughout the plantation.
The St. James maintenance team of Mark, Richard and Fritz constructed raised gardening beds for this project a few weeks ago. The beds are constructed of treated lumber and include PVC piping to accommodate an overhead irrigation system. I personally was amazed at the craftsmanship and professional style beds that were assembled for Terry to work with.
The beds will contain fruits, vegetables and herbs to be used in the restaurants this season. The beds will rotate plants from spring to summer. The cool season plants such as herbs, onions, lettuces and other vegetables were planted this past week. Once ripe and subsequently harvest, the beds will rotate to summer season crops like tomatoes and peppers. The idea to rotate crops was Terry's. The rotation allows for space savings and helps to prevent pest problems associated with homogeneous gardens. The reduced pest pressure will also eliminate the need for added pesticides, thus creating a more organic product.
This will be a experimental season for Terry's vegetable garden on the assumption that he can help subsidize the produce for the Clubs. I have no doubts that Terry will be able to produce excellent products each year and his garden is here to stay.
Here are some pictures of the whole site.
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| Garden bed with irrigation in place. |
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| Vertical gardening. This bed is built using old pallets. |
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| Another picture of a vertical garden. |
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| Close up of the vertical gardening technique. |
