Forge Redesigned

By Angeles Oviedo

The past November, the Forge Garden welcomed its new manager, Santa Clara graduate Rose Madden, who will be spearheading several new developments at the Forge this year.

Madden explained that the Forge had gone without central oversight since its beginning in 2009.

"It's been floating without one person in charge of it," said Madden. "Some faculty members have been overseeing it. There's an AmeriCorps and university program called Bronco Urban Gardens, which operates out of the Forge as their home base, but there wasn't anybody really focused on the garden."

According to Madden, the opportunity to manage the Forge Garden arose last spring when the 2007 Ripple House was moved to the Forge. With the solar house at the Forge, the site came under the wings of the facilities department, having previously been under the authority of the Environmental Studies Institute.

Recognizing the need for a site manager, university officials put together a proposal for a garden manager position.
"I had been a part of the Forge since its beginning," said Madden. "I graduated in 2009, the same year the garden was started, so I helped put the cover crop in the very first year."

She maintained contact with director of the Environmental Studies Institute Leslie Gray who informed her of the manager position, which she was eager to apply for. Once Madden was offered the position, she left her employment at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, where she managed the 11-acre farm.

Since taking on the position in November, Madden has been hard at work to redesign the Forge. Her plans for the garden are featured in an extensively detailed hand-drawn map of the garden that includes a greenhouse, a classroom, a student-research area, native hedgerows, a pollinator sanctuary to attract bees and butterflies to help with pollination, and an aquaponic gardening system designed by a Santa Clara student.

"We received a grant for a greenhouse last quarter and we put in a couple bids for different prices and styles," said Ellen Orabone, BUG and AmeriCorps volunteer. "We're planning on putting it up soon this quarter to protect some of the little seedlings we have going."

Madden said, "Today we had a class that met out front, but soon there'll be a classroom to meet in. We only had 10 shovels, but we had 20 students, so those kinds of things will come when we're more prepared to work with a larger group."
Madden encourages students to visit the Forge and to not be intimidated by gardening.

"Visit the chickens or take a walk around and look at what's growing," said Madden. "You don't have to love sweating and shoveling, you can just come and hang out while you're here."

Contact Angeles Oviedo at aoviedo@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.