Ecologue

At the AASHE conference, I attended a session hosted by students of the University of Northern Iowa. They shared their experiences with a campus garden plot much like the SSI garden. What was inspiring about their garden was the momentum and enthusiasm they were able to sustain from the time of groundbreaking and throughout the last three years. The garden has continuously grown, not only in terms of produce amount, but also in terms of its presence on campus and its ability to engage students. The garden established a kind of brand for itself, having a catchy name – the “Panther Plot”. The recognizability of this name could be wielded to increase campus awareness and excitement from the very beginning.

To make the garden such a success and impactful across many majors, the student gardeners connected with design and engineering students to install landscaping features and a pergola. The aesthetic that could be achieved through these additions continuously sparked the interest of more student volunteers. The garden yielded 1400 pounds of vegetables in the first year, which more than doubled to 3000 pounds this year. Such an abundance of produce made it possible to sell the harvest to the campus dining center, to students at a produce stand, and to donate it the local food bank. To close each growing season the Harvest Festival filled the garden to the brim with 1500 guests.

To me, it was so inspiring to learn just how much a campus garden can thrive in three years. The students at University of Northern Iowa claimed this plot as their learning oasis and place for collaboration. The campus-wide recognition of and enthusiasm for this garden is truly an impressive achievement. As we are going forward with SSI’s garden at OSU, we are thinking about how to make our plot more exciting to our fellow students. The garden I learned about at AASHE will continue to be an inspiration in this process. Our garden belongs to all students at OSU, and we want to make sure that our passion for growing food reaches many more students across all majors and backgrounds.