Veterans Employment Base Camp and Organic Garden
We're minimizing the use of well water and increasing water retention capacity through practices such as a cistern and pump system and rain barrels, appropriate plant selection and organic manure use.
About the project
We will be acquiring 2 acres of land for our organic garden. We would like to install a rainwater harvesting system in the garden to alleviate any demand on the water sewage system and reduce any usage of the well that we plan on having dug on site. We will be using volunteers, including college students, military members and Boy Scouts, to assist in the completion of different tasks. The outcome will be less demand on the City water system and a research site for the benefits of rainwater harveting.
The Steps
- We will dig a well on the alloted acreage, with the average depth being slightly less than 50 feet. The well will feed the drip/sprinkler system.
- We will install a pump system to sustain water flow.
- We will harvest rainwater off all buildings and structures by placing two large cisterns behind the storage units as part of our water conservation system (this will also reduce impacts of runoff to nearby streams).
- We will place rain gutters and overflow systems.
Why we‘re doing it
The Veteran Organic garden is projected to be self-sustaining in five years and the produce will supply an additional form of organic produce and flowers for the surrounding community in Craven county. Our guiding principles are taking the marketable skills of the disabled veterans and the motivated homeless veterans and putting both back to work.