Building the Regenerative Agriculture Infrastructure at LEAF

-By Christine Young, Volunteer Blogger-

Every place, from cities to countries, starts with infrastructure. Farms are no different. While a city’s foundation consists of roadways, utilities, transportation network, and various services, the infrastructure of a farm includes its roads, planting areas, irrigation system, and even the cages that protect the plants from hungry critters. 

At LEAF, our Urban Gardens represent a transformation from once-weedy fields to spaces that now bear bountiful harvests of fresh fruits and vegetables. Much of the work has happened under the guidance of Jerry Kuhlmann, a longtime volunteer who also sits on the LEAF board as our Infrastructure Director. As Jerry notes, LEAF’s mission of educating people about healthy soil wouldn’t be possible without the types of structures and systems that are now in place. 

“A lot of our structures are required for either teaching or for producing food,” Jerry says. “They need to be there to achieve what we want to achieve.”

What LEAF aims to do is enable people in the community to connect with the land and learn how to become stewards of the Earth. Our gardens are living classrooms, carefully nurtured by dedicated volunteers. The fruits and vegetables we grow here go back into the community via donations to local food banks. 

A Sustainable Framework for Growing Food

Jerry’s involvement with LEAF began out of curiosity about 10 years ago, when he and his wife Syndee would drive by the LEAF Urban Farm regularly. On one of these drives, they noticed the shadehouses and shipping container at the farm. They also saw abandoned beehives (Jerry’s wife is a beekeeper). Interested in learning more, the couple stopped by and met Bruce, LEAF’s founder. What they took away from the conversation sounded very rewarding, leading both to become volunteers. (Syndee is now LEAF’s resident beekeeper and one of our knowledgeable gardeners.)

In those early days, the farm was almost a blank canvas, its grounds consisting of weedy fields with hard clay. Through regenerative agriculture techniques, our gardeners have created a sustainable urban farm that produces a wide variety of edible plants. 

Jerry has helped to install irrigation wiring as well as gardening boxes that have plenty of room for nutrient-rich compost and, ultimately, a host of plants. He has helped build the shadehouse structures that the farm uses to propagate plants. And the cages that go in and above the ground to protect the plants from gophers, squirrels, and other rodents? Those also represent some of Jerry’s designs that he has shared with countless volunteers who have helped build up the farm infrastructure over the years.

Last year, the LEAF Urban Farm faced a major undertaking when we lost our lease. Our volunteers had to relocate our garden to a new site adjacent to the old location. This meant that all of the infrastructure components had to be moved or rebuilt. Jerry played a key role in directing this effort.

A couple of more recent projects involved erecting a gazebo as the center structure of the Urban Farm, a pergola over our new kitchen patio, and adding a solar panel array on top of one of the shipping containers that supports an outdoor classroom. When Jerry isn’t involved in building something new, there are plenty of ongoing maintenance projects to fill his time. 

For many of these projects, Jerry is accompanied by girls and boys who serve in scouting troops. Working with Jerry, the Scouts learn valuable skills and sustainability insights while they earn the Eagle Scout rank. Together, they’ve built pergolas and worm bins along with the gardening boxes and cages. Jerry hopes that in the future, when these Scouts have families of their own, they can bring them to LEAF and share what they’ve created.

“It’s really rewarding seeing something complete, helping the kids out,” Jerry notes. “The ultimate goal is to feed people. Everyone deserves to be fed.”

Finding Satisfaction in the Natural World 

In his professional career, Jerry helped build high rises and bridges for large corporations. Since he has always been an outdoors person with a great appreciation for the natural world, his work as a LEAF volunteer over the past 10 years brings a new level of personal satisfaction. 

About five or six years ago, Jerry joined the LEAF Board of Directors as Infrastructure Director. The board shapes the vision and direction of the organization. In the near term, LEAF aims to expand its gardening area to double the food production. We will also significantly increase our educational offering. This means there will be a need for more planter boxes, educational areas, and the like. Jerry stands ready to embrace it all. It’s hard to blame him: along the journey toward achieving one’s goals, there are also plenty of rewards. 

Want to learn more about regenerative agriculture or try it out for yourself? Sign up for one of our events or volunteer at the LEAF Urban Farm.