University of Puerto Rico in Ponce

English Department
ENGL 4021- M03
MEMORANDUM

DATE: December 8th, 2022

TO: Prof. Pier Le Compte
FROM: Nashali Santiago Santana, Marcos Tarafa Santiago, Melanie Rivera Feliciano, Thalia
N. Gonzalez Rivera
SUBJECT: Progress Report- Atabey Garden

INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND

During our class reunions, Professor LeCompte assigned us to do a group of four members to
work on the Atabey Garden at the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce and do a total of eight
hours of community service during the whole semester to learn and understand more about
the agriculture of Puerto Rico. Our group, consisting of four members, during the whole
semester completed the eight hours of community service on different days because of our
schedules. Melanie Rivera Feliciano, one of the members of our group, completed six of her
hours on a farm called “Finca Nuevas Cosechas Ecológicas” located in Lajas, Puerto Rico.
Thalia N. Gonzalez Rivera, completed six of her hours on a farm called “Finca Buena Vibra”
located in Ponce, Puerto Rico. As of now, we have completed 100% of our project as
scheduled and this report reflects the work done and what we have learned during the time
given.

WORK COMPLETED

In the first hour Nashali Santiago and Marcos Tarafa arrived at the “Atabey Garden’ and got a
chance to talk to Miguel Costas to briefly discuss what must be done in the grove. Then Miguel
explained how to do the tasks assigned and Nashali finished them completely divided in days,
completing 8 hours in total. There was not much work to do because other groups had already
gone before them. Melanie Rivera Feliciano and Thalia Gonzalez arrived at the “Atabey
Garden” and didn’t get the chance to talk to Miguel Costas, they were assigned to water plants
and to make lineal holes they completed two hours in the Atabey Garden. To complete the
eight hours, Thalia Gonzalez went to “Finca Buena Vibra”. In the first hour Thalia got a chance
to talk to the supervisor and leader Rafael Rodriguez who explained completely the process of
making coffee. Then she completed the task assigned by Rafael and completed eight hours in
total in the Farm. to complete the eight hours Melanie Rivera went to “Nuevas Cosechas
Ecológicas” in the first hour she got a chance to talk to the leader Anaia, she explained the
work that had to be done and guide Melanie through the whole experience. Melanie completed
all the tasks and finished the eight hours of service.

TASK ASSIGNED TO EACH MEMBER OF THE GROUP

Thalia Nahir Gonzalez Rivera

Day 1:
● Weeding the tire area
● Water the crops
● Create lineal holes for new planting

Day 2:
● Picking up Coffee
● Picking up Cacao
● Cleaning up coffee seeds
● Putting coffee seeds in the sun
● Roasting coffee seeds

Task Completed: All tasks were completed.

Melanie Rivera Feliciano

Day 1;
● Harvest Jamaica Flower
● Untangle the growth of the Jamaican Flower

Day 2:
● Continue harvesting the Jamaican Flower
● Creating Jamaican Flower Juice

Day 3:
● Weeding the tire area
● Water the crops
● Create lineal holes for new planting

Task Completed: All tasks were completed.

Marcos Tarafa Santiago

Day 1:
● Weeding the tire area
● Weeding the garden area with the hoe
Day 2:
● Compact the dirt
● Collect the straw after it is weeded

Task Completed: All tasks were completed.

Nashali Santiago Santana

Day 1:
● Weeding the tire area
● Fill the tires with compost

Day 2:
● Collect stones
● Place the stones in a spiral
● Plant Medical plants

Task Completed: All tasks were completed.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Atabey Garden at University of Puerto Rico at Ponce has some limitations that may interfere
with student’s schedules .

This limitations include:

● Hours of maintenance: The hours of service to maintain the garden are mainly done
Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. These times and days of
maintenance can interfere with students' courses, laboratories and work.

On the recommendations, we include more hours of community service. There should be

more days of maintenance to complete community hours, so that students that can´t complete
the hours due to their schedule could complete them more easily.

OTHER PROJECTS

Apart from maintain a garden, Atabey Garden also has other agricultural projects, such as:

● Planting and growing medicinal plants, like tobacco

● Planting sunflowers
● Planting and growing tomatoes, pumpkins, and peppers

FUTURE PROJECTIONS

Although work is resuming on the Atabey garden, there is still much work to be done. Due to
the pandemic, maintenance stopped and the garden was neglected. Now that we are back, it is
being progressively restored. Hurricane Fiona in September also affected the plantings and
the work that had been done up to then. In the future we hope to finish installing the irrigation
system, we plan to expand the planting area and expand the area of the medicinal garden by
adding more plants. We also hope to harvest what is obtained from the tobacco plantation and
the medicinal plants that were planted. We also hope to plant and harvest other foods such as
tomatoes, lettuce, squash and sweet peppers. Sunflowers were also planted this semester and
it is hoped that in the future we will be able to observe their flowering.

CONCLUSION

At the end of our service in the Atabey garden we acquired knowledge, experience and had
the opportunity to develop many skills. We learned about planting, composting, and the
different types of crops that can be grown in a garden. We have to share this knowledge with
other people to create awareness of the importance of growing your own food because this is
a way to reduce consumerism. Also it is a way to care about our health because vegetables
that are grown in our garden may have less toxins. We hope to be able to continue having
experiences like this with which we can contribute and continue implementing these learned
practices.

ENCLOSURE: Photos, Service Logs, and Minutes.

 APPENDIX A

Service Log and photos as evidence of the work done in the Atabey garden.

Figure 1: Nashali Santiago Santana's service log certified by Miguel J. Costas Sabatier.
Figure 2: Marcos Tarafa Santiago’s service log certified by Miguel J. Costas Sabatier.
Figure 3 : Melanie Rivera Feliciano’s service log certified by Miguel J. Costas Sabatier.
Figure 4: Thalia N. Gonzalez Rivera’s service log certified by Rafael Rodriguez.
Figure 5: Melanie and Thalia weeding the “Atabey Garden”.

Figure 6: Thalia mulling the “Atabey Garden” soil.

 Figure 7: Melanie mulling the “Atabey Garden” soil.

Figure 8: Melanie visiting “Finca Nuevas Cosechas Ecológicas”.

Figura 9: Hibiscus flower harvest in “Finca Nuevas Cosechas Ecológicas”.

Figura 10: Thalia visiting “Finca Buena Vibra”.

 APPENDIX C

Self Reflection of Progress Report

Figure 14: Self-reflection on the project work of Nashali Santiago

Figure 15: Self-reflection on the project work of Marcos Tarafa
Figure 16: Self-reflection on the project work of Thalia N. Gonzalez.
Figure 17: Self-reflection on the project work of Melanie Rivera Feliciano.