Garden

From UANotebook

Brainstorm for the SMU Garden Project:

Contents

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Introduction

Sustainability, health and environmental protection have been some of the most important topics in our country and in the world today. The White House recently started a garden on its own lawn, sending a message to the American public about the value of fresh, organic and locally grown produce. Michelle Obama, herself, acknowledged that one of the primary goals of the presidential garden is to educate America’s youth about the importance of healthy food. In urban centers, there is a growing green movement of building and cultivating community gardens. More recently, our neighboring cities such as Seattle and Portland have started urban harvesting programs that organize volunteers to harvest and maintain neighborhood fruit trees, donating the resulting bounty to soup kitchens and food banks. Schools and universities are also recognizing the educational potential of gardens. This year, University of Washington, Tacoma started a garden on their urban campus. The Evergreen State College has long had an organic garden that is operated by students. Yale University students started a farm in 2003. These are just a few examples of schools harnessing the power of gardens to teach, create community and to contribute to positive social change.

Saint Martin’s University is a perfect setting for an educational garden. We are situated in a beautiful oasis of green, with plenty of sunny patches to nourish vegetables, herbs and flowers. A number of SMU faculty have expressed interest in having a campus garden and in using it in their teaching. The garden is also an excellent fit with the Benedictine philosophy of environmental stewardship, community and labor.

Why

  • The Benedictine values can be taught via the garden
  • Connecting learning with technology and local place
  • The virtual world can help us learn and teach about our physical world
  • Concern with where food comes from
  • Environmental impact of food production
  • Learning how to grow food
  • Urban sustainability
  • Building community
  • Hands on learning
  • Students are increasingly interested in the environment
  • Connection with the Benedictine monks and the history of farming on campus land
  • Good promotion for SMU
  • Will put us on the virtual map of other university garden and sustainability projects

Who

  • White house is doing it
  • Other schools are doing it
  • SMU should do it
  • The few informal conversations with faculty, staff, monks and students show a high level of interest

What

  • Campus garden
  • Gleaning food
  • Places to glean, grow and to distribute food
  • Student writing and research
  • Various Classes can use it for teaching
  • Yearly benefit where student grown and cooked food is served to benefactors

How

  • Faculty, monks, staff would guide students in building the garden
  • Programs like GRUB help schools start gardens
  • Teach a class on food/plants/soil/engineering/etc. that would get hands on learning experience
  • The monks had a garden here before and might like to revive it
  • Faculty/Staff/Monk/Student committee
  • Work Study students
  • Independent student projects
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Books and Articles:

  • Tracey, David. (2007). Guerrilla Gardening: a manualfesto. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
  • Carpenter, Novella. Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.
  • Bittman, Mark. Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009



"Consumers of all ages, races, and ethic groups who have higher levels of education are more likely to buy organic products than less-educated consumers. Other factors, such as race, presence of children in the household, and income, do not have a consistent effect on the likelihood of buying organic products."


  • Sweetness and power : the place of sugar in modern history by Sidney W. Mintz.

http://www.librarything.com/work/36069


  • Schlosser, E. (2001). Fast food nation: The dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

http://www.librarything.com/work/3735


  • Petrini, C. (2007). Slow food nation: Why our food should be good, clean, and fair. New York: Rizzoli Ex Libris.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2726094


  • Pollan, M. (2006). The omnivore's dilemma: A natural history of four meals. New York: Penguin Press.

http://www.librarything.com/work/504173



Thoreau, Henry David (1854). Walden

Detailing his two-year and two-month long social social experiment into transcendentalism, "Walden" provides an interesting account of self-discovery and reliance, human ingenuity, and a stark departure from materialism in favor of getting back to the basics with nature.


Bellamy, Edward (1888). Looking Backward, 2000-1887

Perhaps his best known of many works, Bellamy's "Looking Backward..." is his platform for social and economic reform. Despite its literary flaws (most of his ideas are exposed through dialogue, resulting in little plot) Bellamy's proposed "perfect society" continues to attract worldwide attention.


Morris, Williams (1890). News from Nowhere

A utopian novel of "soft science fiction" and socialism, "News From Nowhere" protagonist, William Guest, awakens to find himself in a future utopian "agrarian society functions simply because the people find pleasure in nature, and therefore they find pleasure in their work."


Wells, H.G. (1904). A Modern Utopia

Often referred to as a hybrid between a fiction and a philosophical discussion, "A Modern Utopia" is Well's account of the perfect "world state", a social reform concept, which would preoccupy him for the remainder of his life, and explores achieving a better state of balance between man and the Earth.


Skinner, B.F. (1948). Walden Two

A work of science-fiction, famed psychologist B.F. Skinner narrates an experimental community which he calls Walden Two. Citing the problems of overcrowding populations and thereby over-pollution and use of resources, Skinner offers Walden Two, as "not a bad start" to avoiding a catastrophic future.


Pohl, Frederick (1953). The Space Merchants

Widely lauded as a classic contribution to the genre of science-fiction, "The Space Merchants", first published in a serial magazine, was ahead of its time in stressing the importance of controlling population growth and conserving our natural resources, in the tale of a vastly overpopulated world where businesses have taken hold over the government and all positions of power.


Piercy, Marge (1976). Woman on the Edge of Time

Widely considered a classic example of utopian science-fiction and feminism, "Woman on the Edge of Time's" Consuelo travels to a future in which "all the radical movements of the 70s have been actualized" A world in which environmental pollution, homophobia, racism, phallogocentrism, class-subordination, consumerism, imperialism, and totalitarianism are non-existent. Returning to her own, critical time period, Consuelo must work to insure such a future is possible.


Callenbach, Ernest (1977). Ecotopia

Considered a widely influential work to the counterculture and green movements of the 70s. Callenback's "Ecotopia" details impressive, environmentally neutral energy, homebuilding, and transportation technology based on research findings published in such magazines as Scientific American.


Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. (2005). Sustaining the Earth 7th edition.


Boyle, Coraghessan T. (2000.) A Friend of the Earth.

Set in the year 2025, "A Friend of the Earth" provides a possible fiction supplement to Gore's "Inconvenient Truth." Habitat loss have caused many species, both animal and flora to wither and perish, and limit the supply of previously common foods. Steering away from political hot buttons, unlike many of her predecessors, Boyle presents a fascinating and terrifying dystopia of the not so distant future.

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Other similar projects:

Whitman's organic garden was created in 1997 by four students.

Follow the USF Garden Project blog for details of USF’s efforts to provide a “no till, biodynamic, and edible garden”, including Community Garden meeting minutes, photos, and updates. Established in 2007, the project has now expanded to include rain catchment, canning, and animals (chickens and bat houses).

GruB, or Garden-Raised Bounty, is a non-profit based in Thurston and Mason counties in Washington state, dedicated to empowering people and growing good food to build and nourish a strong community, and helping low-income and seniors by building raised gardens at their homes.

Yale University’s farm provides a hands-on method of teaching sustainability. First established in 2003, the farm now provides hundreds of varieties of edible herbs and produce, hosts weekly volunteer days, lectures, and workshops, as well as practices agricultural methods which can be indefinitely continued without destroying the biological systems in which they live.

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

The Edible Schoolyard (ESY) provides the students of Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School of Berkley California with the complete agricultural experience reinforced in their core curriculum, from growing, harvesting, and preparing its seasonal produce. To give its students “A one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom,” and encourage a more intimate understanding and appreciation for agriculture and our relationship with the natural world.

Operating on a strict five-year rotation policy, intercropping, and the use of ground covers, Evergreen’s Organic Farm, just shy of an acre, provides a diverse selection of produce. Production from the Farm is sold at a farm stand which helps to self-sustaining the project, financing equipment and various seeds, with excess production being donated to the Thurston County Food Bank.

Follow the Progress of UW’s Giving Garden and Environmental Program. Located in downtown Tacoma, WA, the University of Washington’s Environmental program goals include providing the community with an example of a sustainable and affordable urban food resource, provide its students with the opportunity to learn natural pest control, and the students of Tacoma’s school district with a hands-on outdoor classroom, as well as provide food to low-income and the homeless population of Tacoma. The Project, which broke ground in the ’08-’09 academic year, with the help over of 50 local volunteers last Earth day, was expanded to include eight raised beds and some native plants, and this summer made its first donation, to the Good Neighbor Café.

Terra Commons is a non –profit group helping to convert front yards, schools, parks, and churches into food producing Edible Forest Gardens. The project also includes educating the public about Edible Forests and transfiguring their energy consuming lawns into energy producing forest.

Ohio State's leanring gardens rely on volunteer support for all of their day to day opperations, and is specifically used by Landscaping and Horticultural classes. Part funded by the college, part funded by local businesses, private donors, plant sales, and membership fees (an option which allows subscribers invitations to private events, discounts on plant sales, etc...) The gardens and Arboretum are integrated into the campus landscape itself to be enjoyed by all, not just the volunteers.

Supported by volunteers and local business, the gardens include a butterfly, water, rock, turf management, groundcover, perennial and annual, and universally accessible gardens for students and the community at large.

The Ute Ethnobotany Learning Gardens, are supported by the U.S. Dept. of Interior Bureau of Land Management, Dept. of U.S. Forest Service, Mesa State College, Colorado State University Extension and Colorado Master Gardener Program, and Nothern Ute Indian Nation, the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, students and volunteers. Though still in its infancy and construction stages, the project plans to teach living and eating from a xeric landscape, traditional Native American gardening skills, Ute structures and miniature plant communities, as well as provide an adaptable vegetable garden for people with limited mobility and/or living space.

Supported by Portland University, Portland Public Schools, Portland Parks & Rec., OR State Extension Service, and volunteers, the Portland Learning gardens provide classes not just to their local campus, but to surrounding schools and students of all grades and skill levels including: Ecology, Cultures and Learning Program, Environmental Education, Grant Writing for the Environment, Sustainable Food Systems, and Learning Gardens and Civic Affairs.

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Possible Funding Sources:

The Washington Restaurant Association Education Foundation provides scholarships for exemplary culinary students and donations to culinary education programs.

Supported by businesses, cottage industries, and individuals, the Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County supplies grants for projects pushing for environmental and social change to groups and individuals interested in “progressive community oriented activities.”

The EPA Environmental Education grants grants generally provides between $15,000 to $25,000 to environmental education projects “that enhance the public’s awareness, knowledge, and skills to help people make informed decisions that affect environmental quality.”

One of several important Environmental Education grants donated by the National Environmental Education Foundation is the National Environmental Education Week, which funds the efforts of schools to create greener facilities in a way that involves and educate their students.

Awarding approximately 136 annual grants to K-12 schools, Community Colleges, and four-year institutions, Corning has contributed more than 4108 million through its programs, some $3 million each year. Awards are meant to encourage and foster community service programs for students, curriculum enrichment, student scholarships, facility improvement and instructional technology projects for the classroom.

The North American Association for Environmental Education provides a wonderful resource in which to seek out specific or otherwise begin a general search for government and privately funded grants for ecological projects, through their connections to over twenty other related servers.

Since 1999 the NEA Foundation has been awarded more than 2,000 grants totaling over $6 million to teachers and other educational professionals to help improve student involvement and achievement. NEA grants “reward innovation that create better teachers, more dynamic classrooms, and engaged students.”

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Possible classes that could use the garden at SMU:

  • Anthropology –an ethnography of the edible city
  • Art – public art for the garden
  • Biology – how earth, water, sun and plants work in our garden; urban ecology; local flora
  • Business – green business operations (business plan for the garden); sustainability; microeconomics
  • Chemistry – green chemistry, Food and Chemistry
  • Computer Science – create a virtual garden? Design an interactive garden website
  • Engineering – make a water pump/way to get water to the garden. Design a garden space considering light, wind, etc.
  • Economics - Economy of Food
  • English – Food in literature
  • Psych – what we eat and why
  • History - agriculture, farmers, food in the Northwest
  • Journalism – garden/local food news
  • Math – the geometry of food ( that fractal broccoli is always fascinating!)
  • Music – Four Seasons? : )
  • Health (possibly Nursing program in the future)- grow a medicinal herb garden that can be used in Chinese medicine. (Get seeds from UW's medicinal garden).
  • Political Science – sustainability and democracy
    • Service – grow food for the food bank, food not bombs, SMU community
    • Social justice – hunger/poverty/environmental protection
    • Community – Bon Apetit, Food Bank, students, soup kitchens, etc.


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Planning

Garden Location Criteria

1.Visibility is important for the garden being something that the university can show off to campus visitors.

2.Visibility is important for encouraging the use of the garden.

3.A visible location is also important for the community to “keep an eye” on the garden to avoid vandalism and promote safety. The garden location should be a place that is public and not isolated.

4.There should be easy access to the garden on foot and by car.

5.The garden should get plenty of sunlight.

6.There should be easy access to water.

7.The garden should be on land that will not be developed in the near future.

8.The garden should not be too close to major roads to reduce pollution from exhaust.

The garden should be immediately visible to campus visitors and community for the promotion of university life and as a symbol of the Benedictine values of community, hospitality, work ethic and environmental stewardship. The garden will be aesthetically beautiful and it should serve as a sanctuary where anyone can rest and enjoy the space.

Safety is another reason that the garden’s ideal location would be central to campus. We feel that this is important to “keeping an eye” on the space. This is based on a simple concept articulated by urbanist Jane Jacobs who wrote that the safest streets are the ones that are used the most. When a lot of foot traffic occurs in or around the place, the more that place is perceived as safe and in turn gets more use. The visibility of the garden will diminish the possibility of vandalism, inappropriate uses and will promote general safety for anyone who might want to visit the garden. This will in turn bring more visitors to the garden and make it a well used and well loved community space.

Concerns about visibility and the aesthetic look of the garden have been raised. One concern is the deer fence that needs to be put around the garden. We plan to make this fence aesthetically beautiful. A local sculptor and SMU instructor, Tom Deming, has agreed to help us with the design of the fence and we plan to recruit other local artists for the project. Another concern that has been raised is about tending the garden. Our budget proposal includes stipends for two work study students who will work under the supervision of the garden committee. We will also recruit volunteers and offer service learning projects to students. The Thurston County Food Bank has volunteers for the summer months in exchange for some produce from the garden. Several faculty have also expressed interest in incorporating the garden into their courses (English, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering).

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Ideas, Events, Resources

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