Students are working on robotic gardening

Students at Annandale and Falls Church high schools are learning how to use FarmBots to automate gardening.

FarmBots are robots that can be programmed to plant seeds, water plants, pull weeds, and harvest the produce. It slides back and forth on a specially constructed raised garden bed.

Hands On Harvests

The FarmBot program is a component of Hands On Harvests, a volunteer-run nonprofit that encourages people to grow fresh produce and supports community gardens, among other projects.

The community will be able to learn more about Hands On Harvests and FarmBots at the Taste of Annandale, a street festival on April 29 along Tom Davis Drive.

Joyce Matthews, a member of the Hands On Harvests board and STEM coordinator at Braddock Elementary School, learned about the FarmBot company from CodeVA, an organization that brings computer science education to students across Virginia, especially to underserved schools.

Ag tech

Transurban donated $5,000 to Hands On Harvests for the FarmBot program.

One FarmBot was given to a teacher at Falls Church High School a month ago to use in an engineering class.

The students are working on programming the FarmBot and troubleshooting to make it more effective. The school plans to use the FarmBot at the children’s garden operated by Hands On Harvests at Kingsley Commons, an affordable community on Arlington Boulevard in Falls Church.

Another FarmBot was delivered to Annandale High School on March 8. According to Matthews, it will be used by the Green Atoms afterschool club, which focuses on environmental science. Hands On Harvests will bring it to Braddock and Annandale Terrace elementary schools for use at their school gardens.

Hands On Harvests is working with Rosie Innovators, a STEM education group for high school girls run by the Rosie Riveters organization. The girls are designing a security system with an alarm to ensure the FarmBots kept outdoors are safe.

Grow A Row

Hands On Harvests started is an outgrowth of Grow A Row, a program that helps gardeners donate a portion of their crops to food pantries. It was founded by Stacey Evers, a former environmental education teacher at Belvedere Elementary School and president of Hands On Harvests and a part-time urban agricultural specialist with the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

While Grow A Row was successful in helping to provide healthy produce to families with food insecurity, “we wanted to do more,” says Evers. Grow a Row is now part of Hands On Harvests, which became a 501(c)(3) organization in 2021.

Grow A Row participants receive seeds, seedlings, and soil test kits. Gardeners in the program donated 8,100 pounds of produce last year and almost 12,000 pounds the year before. The yield depends on such factors as the weather, insect invasions, and gardeners’ expertise, says Evers.

Community gardens

Hands On Harvests provides seeds. other supplies, and gardening mentors to about 20 gardeners at the two community gardens it runs at Kingsley Commons.

One of Hands On Harvests’ recent projects involves providing seedlings not available in local stores for Asian and Mexican produce.

Hands On Harvest is also partnering with Shenandoah University to distribute “grow bags” with seedlings, gardening information, tools, and gloves to help people without a yard to grow produce on a balcony or another site.  

Helping people gain access to healthy produce is crucial, Evers says, as 24 percent of Fairfax County residents are food-insecure.

That number is expected to soar now that the law that temporarily increased SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits during the pandemic expired in February. As a result, the average family’s SNAP benefits have been reduced by $200 – at the same time inflation is leading to higher grocery costs.