Chesapeake Employee Gardens Photo Tour

10 years ago

I decided to start a new thread to show these photos since my original thread announcing the tour said something like "come do this tonight!" and I didn't want anyone to think it was actually TONIGHT...

This was a really interesting place. It's a huge garden in the middle of the city/in the middle of the Chesapeake campus in OKC. Employees work in teams and sign up to receive a plot and the plots are usually fully committed but they will try to juggle to get everyone who wants to garden involved in some capacity. The teams get to choose what they grow and when they grow it - they buy the plants or seeds or whatever - but the gardens do have two full-time employees that help give advice to the teams, keep an eye on things, and help facilitate good gardening, and the company provides irrigation taps from well water but teams have to actually water themselves (most seem to have drip systems, I saw some timers like the kind I have at home). Teams name their plots (they often choose funny names) and there are a few plots devoted to growing food for the Regional Food Bank (I'm not sure exactly if the teams or the garden employees tend those).

There's a big 5000 sf area of flowers in the middle to draw pollinators, anchored by a huge arbor with grape vines growing on it. There are bee hives and potting sheds but no greenhouse (yet). Huge piles of compost are generated by twice-weekly delivery of food scraps from the five restaurants on-campus.

One of my favorite features was the metal arbor tunnels that have espaliered apple and pear trees. Really cool and looks so convenient for harvest!

You can see people trying all kinds of things throughout the big raised beds; I saw tunnels, shade cloth, teepees, etc. Fun place, and glad I went to check it out. It's not open to the public and only employees (perhaps their families, too) are allowed to get a plot, so it was kind of a special peek to see inside it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr stream Chesapeake gardens

Featured Answer

lcdollar

8 years ago

Chesapeake no longer has a gardening coordinator . They both were laid off three or four years ago. The stockholders did not think that was a prudent use of revenue.

Which really, I'm OK with that. They are really struggling now with low oil and nat gas prices, bankruptcy is a real possibility if commodity prices do not improve in the next year. Thankfully, most experts think that will happen.

But coodinators aren't really necessary, these gardens could be maintained easily as long as Chesapeake supplies them with water. Plenty of employees would volunteer to take care of them.

Comments (11)

momofsteelex3
10 years ago
Thank you for sharing your pictures! What a neat place!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
10 years ago
Mia, Thanks so much for sharing the photos of your tour. It looks like a spectacular garden. I assume those little signs were some of the names. I thought they were cute. I especially loved the arbor over the pathway, and just the general neatness and tidiness of the garden plots. You can tell those plots are very well-tended. It would be nice if more corporations had the resources to provide community-style garden plots for their employees.

Dawn
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slowpoke_gardener
10 years ago
Mia, thanks for sharing your pictures. We hear that a picture is worth a thousand words, I have to agree.
MiaOKC
Original Author
10 years ago
Sad to see that they have laid off the two garden staffers and will be closing the garden after this season. I do understand that without revenues, a lot more than two jobs are at stake, but it does bum me out.

Here is a link that might be useful: restructuring to close employee garden
sorie6 zone 6b
10 years ago
Thanks for sharing your pics. It is a shame it won't last. What a nice thing to do for the food bank. There is such a need!
lcdollar
8 years ago
Happier times.

I drove by the employee gardens the other day, and its depressing. This was a creation of the mind of Aubrey McClendon, and really, I see no reason why this could not be continued. They did have a couple of people hired to oversee the gardens, but it could go on without them, easily. I mean really, all they need is water.

And it appears there were employees at Chesapeake who knew their gardening.
johnnycoleman
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
MiaOKC,

We (Vision Farms) are planting 1,000# of Irish potatoes this year. So, we expect to harvest something over 6,000#. We would like to invite the Chesapeake gardeners to join us in our 2016 potato project.

Can you put us in touch with the garden coordinator? Also, we are planting a couple acres of heirloom Aztec corn that makes very good cornbread. We would like to offer them an opportunity to help and share with the less fortunate. I will even grind their corn into meal for them.

Thanks,

Johnny
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years ago
It is such a shame the garden didn't last. I do wish the employees would/could keep it going on their own, but maybe Chesapeake doesn't want them to. Maybe they think they spent too much on water. Either way, it is just sad. Hopefully someone, somehow will revive the Chesapeake garden someday. Life in Oklahoma changes a great deal when the oil dollars stop flowing as abundantly.
MiaOKC
Original Author
8 years ago
I'm sorry, I've been away from GW for a while - keeping very busy with my little Sprout (14 months old and into everything of course). As someone said above, the Chesapeake gardens were disbanded sometime in the year after I posted the pictures. It's really unfortunate, but I totally understand that it would be difficult to justify laying off more employees to keep something nonessential like the garden going to the shareholders. Maybe someday the land/frames could be utilized by a community group to grow food again.
lcdollar
8 years ago
Its my understanding, some have been planted. All they need is a water source.