Sitting within the University of Maryland's Baltimore County campus, right next to the police station, is the school’s very
own community garden. Started in 2014 by some faculty and students at the
university, The garden gives students, or anyone
who wishes to grow their own plants, access to raised beds with fertile soil to
grow in.
The garden was sparked by
students who saw the land on campus and thought they could use the space to
make a difference and grow some food.
They started creating "The
Garden" over a two year period by developing a proposal and gaining the approval and support needed. In Spring of 2014, the student body voted on the SGA Prove-It
grant funding for a campus improvement project -- 70 percent voted for a
community garden on campus. The raised beds were then built by
student volunteers, along with a broad network of staff, faculty advisers, and
mentors.
“The Garden is a social action
and service organization dedicated to helping reimagine the role of higher
education in addressing problems of the world through the creation and
engagement of our food garden that enables creativity in research, applied learning,
campus-community partnerships, social equity, diversity, and food sovereignty,” according to their Facebook page.
Along with raised beds on the
site, there is a shed with basic tools for use by anyone within the
garden.
The garden is run by a student
group, Sustainability Matters, and has support and oversight from a bunch of
different organizations on campus from Facilities Management to Student Life.
This community garden is
managed and plots are allocated by this student group
to other campus groups. The garden also provides an orientation for these
groups to learn how to grow in their section of the raised beds.
The groups can then choose what
to grow and do with the food they grow in their plot. The garden also provides
a shared compost pile, fun events, and regular community work days.
About the Author: Johnny Moseman is a senior multi-platform journalism major at the University of Maryland from Columbia, MD. He is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener this spring semester.
The Community Gardens of the DMV blog series is profiling community gardens across the DC-MD-VA region. If you have a community garden you would like profiled, please leave a comment below and let us know how to reach you.
Can I donate to the compost pile? I am new to the area and need somewhere to bring my scraps.
ReplyDeleteCheck with @umbc_thegarden on Instagram. Note that most community gardens do not accept outside compost though as they generate so much of their own.
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