Booker T. Washington Community Service Center


Last month Nora Brereton began working with students from the University of San Francisco Environmental Studies class to bring a great garden space to life at the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center (BTWCSC), 800 Presidio Ave, in San Francisco.

USF has an Environmental Studies (ENVA) capstone course designed as a service-learning course that involves students in local projects.  In the Spring of 2010 students began rehabilitating the BTWCSC garden which was installed over ten years ago by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), and not tended to since SLUG disbanded seven years ago.

Students have been doing studies on the 1/4 acre site behind Booker T., understanding how wind, sun, rain, noise, and traffic influence the area.  They have done soil tests, assessed the water catchment possibilities and done tons of weeding.  They even installed chickens to compliment the site.

With CommunityGrows they will begin implementing a design and plan for garden, complete with orchard, seating area, small greenhouse, rehabilitated chicken coop, tool shed, worm bins and an easy to manage compost system.

The end goal is to create a garden and infrastructure that allows the BTWCSC to manage their garden through after-school programs and other community engaged initiatives.  Hopefully CommunityGrows will continue to be involved in this endeavor.